Your first statement contradicts the second one, which only confirms a theory that recruiters aren't the smartest people. If you want to argue that ageism doesn't exist, please provide some stats from your former work. I believe that the real situation is even worse than we can observe exactly because people over 40 had to clutch for the old uncool systems/languages just to keep their job.
It's not ridiculous: I'm partly bold so I always shave my head. I tried to remove graduation years from my resume and did not find it's useful; it would only work if ageism was a sin of a few. Now I keep all my cards open: if my age would be the reason I prefer to skip erroneous interviews that hiding it would have brought (wasted 2 months and 4 interviews, Amazon, yeah?).
If we are going with anecdotal evidence, I'm 55, in top 1% in my field with comprehensive knowledge of modern and cutting-edge technologies. After age 45 was denied promotion and had to look for another employment; was fired (from another employer) at age 52, was out of work for 7 months and had to take a position way below my level. Still there but could be fired at any moment (cost cuts, esp. under current circumstances). Receiving a lot of calls from headhunters based on my excellent linkedin profile, but never went pass first interview in 3 years.