I wouldn't defend hiring based on hobbies, but it's pretty easy to make a comment like "I really like X, but these days I mostly do stuff with my family..." and it's a lot more human sounding than "I have no hobbies."

Agreed on your incredulity. I've never understood ethics behind such type of advice.

File it under Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people".

If there could ever be a treatise on psychopathy, that'd be it.

No job requires you to lie about your personal life, but if they're willing to give you credit for a lie that doesn't matter at all - why the hell not?

Although having said that, judging you so much on your "fit" is a pretty big red flag.

With this stance, you and the OP are uncompromising on this issue which can be viewed as good or bad depending on context but I think in this case it's very unfavorable.

Everyone has hobbies just take the time to think about it and you will come up with something better than "none" which is not really exciting to hear and might send the wrong signal to the recruiter that you are not interested enough in the opening position.