An employer pays 20–25% of a first-year salary to fill a hard role. Meanwhile the specialist firm best placed to fill it may never hear the role exists, and a firm holding a search it can't fill has nowhere to take it.
The problem isn't the fee. It's that demand and specialist recruiting capacity struggle to find each other.
The employer's side
Working with a recruiter goes best when the employer knows who actually works their market. Most employers find that out through timing and word of mouth, because there's rarely a shared record of who fills what. That isn't a failing on the recruiter's part. It's just the information employers have to go on.
The recruiting firm's side
Specialist firms and independent recruiters don't lack skill. What they deal with is uneven work. Some weeks a firm has a client search that needs more reach than the desk can give it. Other weeks it has time and strong candidates, and no live role that fits them. Both are waste, and they rarely happen at the same time.
What a network changes
Employers post roles directly. Firms share the client searches they want more reach on. Specialists work whichever fits their market. Every submission is timestamped and every share is agreed before the work starts. The recruiting relationships people already have stay exactly where they are, and the network is there for the roles that need more.