I'm unconvinced that reaching out to people you know and know your work--especially if they have hiring authority--isn't a pretty good strategy. In fact, with the arms race of flooding the application process and then the company tossing most of it in the trash essentially at random, I wonder if it isn't the better strategy.
Of course, if you don't have a network, that's probably not a great place to be in absent credentials that make you stand out.
This is delulu. Yes, if you know people who are hiring, or companies where people you know who work, great. By all means do that. Referrals are a strong mechanism IF you can leverage it.
But nobody in my network of ~100 is in either situation. They are either also jobless, or their company is not hiring or, what they are hiring for is not applicable to me (such as wrong role/country/TZ/stack).
At some point, if you've exhausted your network and sending out a flood of generic application letters/resumes isn't getting you anywhere, you probably should consider shifting your focus in some way. That might mean going to events, writing, considering different types of roles, etc. Obviously some markets have more potential targets than others.
Of course, if you don't have a network, that's probably not a great place to be in absent credentials that make you stand out.