It has always been part of the interview process at most regionals and every interview process for any airline gig above a regional. Especially career destinations. It may seem pointless to you, but people have lost job offers because of the process. Interviewers are looking for things both big and small. On the “small” end, your attention to detail and neatness of your logbook says a lot about you. On the “big” end, interviewers are looking for signs of things like pencil whipping, maybe a failed 141 stage check that you didn’t disclose but wouldn’t be on a PRIA pull, questionable/illegal flight time (they might be very interested to hear your explanation of that SIC time you have in a piper seminole or that PIC time you logged while keeping the right seat warm in that straight wing citation despite not being type rated, but logged PIC because you were “sole manipulator” and used it in the PIC total on your application.

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter that you think it’s pointless. It’s part of the process whether you like it or not. Which, incidentally, is also part of what is being looked for. Are you going to half a** it just because you don’t agree with it? There are many ways to fly a plane, but the company about to hire you and sign your paychecks has THEIR way they want you to do it. Are you going to do it the way they tell you, even though you don’t like or agree with their SOPs that have been blessed by the FAA? Or, are you going to just go ahead and do it YOUR less pointless way?

The whole thing is a non event that you’re making out to be like it’s some sort of interrogation. It was many years back so the process may have changed, but my panel interview consisted of three people. Two asking me questions and the third sat at the end of the table thumbing through my logbooks. Not a single question was ever asked, but it showed I had enough attention to detail and cared enough to do the simple thing they had asked me to do. If you can’t be bothered to take five minutes of your time to slap some sticky tabs next to all of your checkrides then that says more about you than the process. Would you still be complaining if this was a Delta interview? Because they do the same thing.

You may also be interested to know that, years ago, a logbook review with the FSDO was required in order to apply for your ATP. Much for the very same reasons as listed above - Is all the flight time you are claiming legitimate flight time? If it was obvious that you pencil whipped your logbook or logged illegal time then that would be a direct contradiction of the “good moral character” requirement for the ATP and your application would be denied.. forever.