Eh. There is this thing called a market. Sometimes producers have the whip-hand, sometimes it is the consumers. We have markets in labor, and anyone who (for instance) weathered the 2000 dot.com bust knows, employers in tech don't hesitate to use it when the wheel turns.

I refused a homework project for one firm[1]. It was a highly specific problem that only made sense for one specific version of an app server, and was really a lot of work with some tricky edge cases. Call me entitled, but after I made sure I understood what he was asking, told the interviewer where he could put his homework.

I think it is important to keep a sense of the power dynamic. It is really easy to start moralizing to the powerless (here, employees) when they do find themselves with bit of leverage for a change. Not only is it a bad look - punching down is for insecure assholes - systems break down without feedback and (sometimes) pushback.

[1] Well known, I'm not naming names because it probably was a fluke.