Relevant internship/work experience is always valuable in every program. The problem is that this group is outnumbered by fresh graduates with much better grades, test scores who have minimal experience or programming background.
If you are in the admission office, you have to pick, mix, and balance between the two groups. And then you find out that your best applicants also applied and got admitted to the other top programs.
There is no clear cut solution here. You admit the best applicants you can find each year and they do vary in quality yearly. Then you hope that your program is attractive enough to lure them over. If you have nothing to show such as detailed year placement stats, you will lose some candidates to other programs.