I agree that most companies don't care about false negatives.
The problem is that very few companies know how much false negatives are costing them, so it is very difficult to evaluate whether the false negatives are—cough—a negligible tradeoff against weeding out the false positives.
False positives are right in your face. But it is nearly impossible to systematically keep track of the candidates that aren't hired to see if they are successful elsewhere.
So people lean towards eliminating false positives at all costs. It's another variation on "Looking for the watch where the light is better."
The problem is that very few companies know how much false negatives are costing them, so it is very difficult to evaluate whether the false negatives are—cough—a negligible tradeoff against weeding out the false positives.
False positives are right in your face. But it is nearly impossible to systematically keep track of the candidates that aren't hired to see if they are successful elsewhere.
So people lean towards eliminating false positives at all costs. It's another variation on "Looking for the watch where the light is better."