has Elmo only hired people who claim that they can "wrangle data" and say "yes" ?

There's two issues going on:

1. Elmo's sociopathic approach to laying people off is public knowledge, and top experts have the luxury of not even applying for his jobs.
2. Elmo's ability to judge engineering talent has likely been wildly exaggerated thanks to how he has successfully bought organizations full of talented people, in the past.