When you only have a handful of positions available and there are gazillions of potential applicants for them, the only way to make the recruitment task more or less manageable is to introduce very specific criteria and enforce them strictly. Nobody has the time to read through 2,000 applications for 2 openings, let alone conduct assessment of any sizable fraction of the applicants. Hence, the potential stream of candidates is narrowed down to just a trickle by setting requirements which only few can meet.