I agree with your premise there are lots of "developers" who have worked on a project that used technology X... And realistically only a couple members of any team are producing 70-80% of the code, but the recruiting agencies and HR depts are a huge part of the problem. I am (no really) in that 5%, but I have the hardest time finding jobs, because I've worked all over the map... From designing huge networks, to automating deployment of tens of thousands of network devices, to DB design/DBA type work, to software design, development, etc both web and client based. HR departments are so keyword driven, they don't know what to do with my resume. I'm repeatedly told by recruiters "Well, this company only wants java experience, so you're out because you have other experience on your resume". Or: "Your C++ experience isn't recent enough"... Sure it was 2 years ago, I'm sure the fact that I've been integrating a large C codebase with python to make it scriptable for the last 2 years I've forgotten all my C++... (And oh no that reminds me... its now been 4 years since I used java professionally.. I'll probably never get another java job again... or is that a good thing?)
I regularly teach myself new tech, and really enjoy working in the field, but the miscommunication between development and hiring managers/outside recruiters is very painful to deal with. I shouldn't have to explain to someone who's never written a line of code that there is very little difference between all these languages, and that I know I would be productive on a project written in C, C++, Java, C#, Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Javascript, or SQL within 2-3 days at most. Hell, I was one of the most productive Foxpro programmers at one job I had (no I don't list foxpro on my resume) and I don't even know the language, but I could sit down in code review with the foxpro developers and find/fix bugs all over the place.
On a different note
Why is the position so "unattractive"? Because you're only offering $50k/yr for 6 days a week plus a rotating 24 hr on call day? Where's it located? is it strictly an entry level position?