The description in the post is not even that bad. A page a week is nothing. And it is clearly state that your workload is reduced during your on call period.
In practice, your workload may not be reduced during on call because it's "expected" and you still have to meet your normal deliverables while the team isn't staffed with "extra" people. It also takes a toll on employees to be mentally-available at all times in case some triviality emerges and raises an alarm. You'll find many engineers not willing to leave a small area or even go out for dinner without bringing their laptop and a hotspot, just in case.
- use a primary and secondary on call so that the primary can still go get groceries, or play in the yard with their kids, etc - overlap on call and work hours. I did that at a job and I was fine with working 6pm - 2am just to cover this time slot. Won't work for everyone, but may be a nice compromise for some.
Like everything else, there are ways to do it right, and way to go complete bananas with it.
Sure, agreed. Sometimes it's implemented well and sometimes it isn't. I've experienced some of both.
When it isn't well-implemented and is particularly non-critical, it can feel a bit dystopian to the engineers. If done well and for a good cause, it should be fine.