I have no idea whether your information is correct or not, but I don't know of any airline (or selective training organisation) that doesn't use the face-to-face interview as its primary selection tool. It's usually combined with some aptitude testing, possibly some examinations, maybe a group exercise or two, and often a sim check, but the interview will be the deciding factor. The main point of the interview is not to test your knowledge, or assess how you work with others, it's really to see if you're the kind of guy we could sit next to in a flight deck for 12 hours. And you can't establish a candidate's motivation from a group exercise.
I doubt we'll see things changing on that front any time soon.
Scroggs