Can only speak for the companies where I’ve worked.
Yes, we know about grade deflation- both at an institutional level and for particular courses/majors.
I remember “back in the day” when I worked in aerospace (decades ago) that we basically had no GPA requirement for a few schools as long as the fundamentals were there, evidence of initiative, focus, etc. So you graduated from Cornell with a 2.5 in Mech Eng and your entire “other” experience in college was planning frat parties and balancing the spring break budget- no. But that same 2.5 with cool research experience, a summer job that was relevant, founder of a coding academy to help incarcerated adults develop employable skills- the GPA becomes less important, ESPECIALLY if the student had clearly challenged him/herself with tough, tough classes. Kid took a notorious philosophy seminar (with philosophy grad students) and got a C? Wow, this is someone who reaches intellectually.
So there were two handfuls of schools where the GPA “benchmark” was kind of/sort of a suggestion.
And since then- a bunch of schools where A’s are handed out like candy at the circus so that they are mostly meaningless, and so the actual transcript becomes VERY important. You have a 3.7? Terrific. What classes did you take? Do you show evidence of stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone, or is the transcript filled with the “every football player takes this sociology class because it’s an easy A with a multiple choice exam and no papers to write”.
The single best finance hire I ever made had a BS in Geology and knew NOTHING about finance, middling GPA from a college where nobody had perfect grades (so the GPA was less important). We put him through our “mini MBA” program and even the faculty was impressed. He was just a creative thinker and problem solver (in addition to fantastic quant skills) and the best part- challenged “received wisdom” on topics. So not the kind of employee who is told “this is the numerator, this is the denominator, crank out the answer and then go on to the next problem”. No. Always came up with an innovative approach.
We’d have missed a terrific hire if we’d been faithful to the (somewhat random) GPA “cut-off”.
Can’t speak for every employer…obviously.