[LinkedIn cringe] Mass referrals

So.. Around 2 years back I got my first payout of 50k as a referral bonus for a friend I referred to my company. Around same time.. My team had a few positions.. So i put it on linkedin and got a decent response.. Got another referral.. Next year.. I decided to scale it.. I started putting multiple posts on linkedin for positions across my company and started streaming the responses on google sheet. Having a big linkedin network of 20k helped. This year I scaled it to 4L a year... But then it all stopped after one fine day there was a HR circular to not undertake commercial level sourcing of profiles on linkedin.. And only refer ppl I know. It's a different matter that I could manage to source almost 20-40x more relevant profiles as compared to my HRs even with their third party agencies. More than half of my team members are my referrals :). While scaling this hustle.. This is what I learnt. 1) You will get lots of spam.. I feel sry for some candidates .. But sometime even civil grads will apply for semiconductor jobs. 2) Better to invite applications using a google form with proper filters.. Only serious ppl will apply. 3) Do not refer everyone.. Reduce your effort and only refer candidates who have a chance. 4) Engage with candidates, followup after interviews. 5) Do not trust your employer will automatically honor referral payouts if you don't track.. I literally lost more than 2L coz of inefficient referral tracking system. 6) Control your greed.. Even if you scale up.. Limit yourself to a decent no.. Say 2L a year.. Referral policy is for company's benifit.. They will shut you down one way or another if they find you are gaining. 7) Handling it at scale is a lot of work.

I mean its so hard to get a referral or is it just me? Basically, 1. Everyone on linkden is basically an influencer, though with a legit experience and ofcourse technical skills, its more like everyone is just there to flaunt and I practically see no one actually being helped or helping. 2. Only on a personal level, I guess having met them, do people take you seriously, that still is a low probability. So my question is, if you were an average Joe in this job market, how would you approach people to have them actually land an interview let alone be selected?

So, I've recently joined a company and I've been getting a lot of requests for referrals from folks on LinkedIn whom I don't know personally. I feel for these folks because I was in a similar situation a few months ago, trying very hard to switch. But, I'm sort of confused as to - should we refer someone whom we have never met personally? Does the concept of "referral" allow that? What do you guys think?