I'm with you on this. If you don't have a repo you can share, then a take home exercise seems like a reasonable alternative. Its about being respectful on peoples time, while still recognising the need to 'validate' claims of experience.

I didn’t have any open source work from 1996-2020. What I did have was the an active network and the ability to dig deep when asked about my prior projects/accomplishments.

If I ever pivoted back to pure software development and wanted to get a comparably compensated position at a large tech company would a jump through the DS&A grind - yes. But to work for a startup that offered meh compensation and meaningless “equity” - no.

A lot of people do not have a public portfolio however. Whether for writing or for code. (For perfectly valid reasons.)

Of course, portfolios are a perfectly reasonable expectation in a lot of professions including the trades.