I firmly believe that if one is not able to get into FAANG without going for MS, they won't be able to do it by going for MS simply because that means that they aren't smart enough for it. Recruiters reaching out, etc doesn't matter if you won't get the offer. The ratio of people interviewing for first stage and those who actually get the offer is very very low at these companies.

And not to mention that going for MS involves lots of money, effort, time etc. I firmly believe that if the same time and effort are invested in working at a company In India one would do much better. The MS route makes sense if getting a job in the US is your only motive. And anybody who is hating their jobs in India and going to US to get better jobs probably isn't smart (in the technical sense) enough.

Logic is simple, a smart person won't need to go to US to get a better job. That will only apply to people who are so bad that they can't get good jobs in India. So they hope to go to US and waste tons of their parent's money in the hope that they would get into FAANG. In reality, they would end up with a shitty 60k USD job at best which means fuck all.

No, proficiency in DS/Algo is not required to succeed in your career. I am not sure if you even have a CS background or not.