I've always been very wary of whatever headhunters/recruiters dream up for me for exactly this reason: they don't add much to the hiring process.
A good way to assess a company during a job interview is to count the number of barriers they put up between prospective employees and the tech people. Too many barriers are a sign of bad tech company culture.
Most of HR is such a barrier, most recruiters are.
In short, tech recruiters are non-technical dolts who use bad metrics to squeeze the highest dollar out of the companies they're contracted to while alienating otherwise prospective talent.
It sounds like you just got burned by one company/person? Not all recruiters are like you described. I've got my biases though, just like you've got yours.
A good way to assess a company during a job interview is to count the number of barriers they put up between prospective employees and the tech people. Too many barriers are a sign of bad tech company culture.
Most of HR is such a barrier, most recruiters are.