A system that requires persistence gives an advantage to people with energy left after surviving it.

Persistence is treated as a neutral requirement, as though everyone has the same amount available. In practice the process itself consumes energy, so the people it exhausts most are the ones least able to keep going, and the ones who reach the end are often those it cost the least. The system then reports that everyone who deserved an outcome received one, and it looks true from the inside.

If you are dealing with something like this, ration yourself deliberately rather than sprinting, and ask someone else to make one call on your behalf. If you run a process, look at where people give up and treat that as your central measurement. Wearing people out is a decision even when nobody made it.