The tools have got better in some ways and also worse (e.g. complexity of git). But before subversion there was cvs, rcs and visual source safe.
They didn't have to understand in advance. They just had to be smart enough to know they needed help.
One of my most frequent freelance clients was a web developer who farmed some modules out to me to be implemented. From what I could tell, he used FTP for deploying changes, and did not use any kind of version control. I kept him on as a client because I needed the work, but this lack of proper tooling caused numerous headaches. In retrospect, it probably would have benefitted both of us to condition any work for him on his adopting source control for that project.
Probably the better thing to ask a candidate as a follow-up question is why is version control important.
>Do new candidates write code during their interview?
The author suggests removing these two rules because they're ubiquitous, that everyone does them.
I hate to inform the author, but he's sadly mistaken. There are plenty of companies still out there that aren't doing these things, especially with interviews. Also, I think the ubiquity of them is a reason to include them, because it helps draw attention to those companies that are deficient in some way.