If I'm not given that guidance directly nor given a chance to clarify it as I do the solution (as with normal interviews), I don't really want to participate in the guessing game about what they want, if missing that guess results in all the work being wasted.

As others have mentioned, I find the "limit yourself to 2-4 hours" BS. I can stand up a new http server in 2 hours to implement some API, sure. Adding unit tests, integration tests, a readme, build instructions/scripts, containerizing it, adding detailed comments, linting... generally not possible to do in 4 hours unless you have everything set up before then (I can't use my normal dev tools to do takehomes because they're through my employer). IRL you would generally scope this as a week-long task even for experienced employees.

Maybe if I were unemployed and desperate for a job I'd suffer it, but most places I'm interested in working at ask whiteboard/design problems anyway.