"If we are to use a medical analogy, imagine interviewing an experienced surgeon...'What is a scalpel?...show how you'd cut in that case'...such a situation is unimaginable."
I don't think this analogy tells us anything (other than that's not how the medical field works). Why is this situation unimaginable? What exactly would be wrong with this approach?
I do a couple tech interviews a week and I regularly see people with very impressive resumes that can't code fizzbuzz. The job largely consists of writing software; I see no problem with requiring candidates to demonstrate that they can, in fact, write software. I don't want to work with people that think they're too good to demonstrate their skills.