it's entirely irrelevant to work capacity. It's a popular thing to look for because where it does exist and is good it's a strong hard-to-bullshit signal of a good developer.
That doesnt mean that the candidates who dont have it arent equally good. It just means that you cant easily tell it without investing resources into interviewing them and others who look as good as them.
As the contrary. It's up to your options and your choices.
And that's irrelevant to your employment/work capacity.
A decent recruiter is aware of that. Others are optimizing for something else than a balanced contractual work relationship.