I will agree that we seem to be talking past each other :)
I don't know the cause of the broken funnel, but that does not stop me from being to identify that there is something broken with how Palantir are filling their funnel.
I do think the DOL are looking at the wrong end. What Palantir needs to fix is how they are filling their pipeline so that they capture a much more representative cross section of the talent pool. I am pretty sure Palantir have not deliberately set out to do this, but there is something about their selection criteria, advertising, or outreach that is going wrong to end up with such a skewed funnel.
I am not sure it is illegal what Palantir is doing (the court case will determine this), but on the face of if 20% of the people you hire are of Asian decent this does not look unreasonable. If their funnel had 20% Asian candidates and they hired 20% I don't think the DOL would have intervened.
Of course it's obvious to Palantir: they are the ones doing it. Of course it's not obvious to DOL: they are the ones with the lawsuit.
Of course it obvious to anyone that demographics at various level of any funnel wont/cant be translated to the bottom.
What's not obvious are the causes in this specific case.