Multiple times I've seen companies be the originator. Quite simply, it's insurance fraud. They demand an air gap, you say you have one.

You can certainly argue that, at a general level, air gaps don't work for the same reason teen abstinence doesn't work. They don't happen. But in specifics, particularly for infosec professionals, it should be your job to call out dishonesty. Not to not along sagely and say "air gaps don't always work". If your airgapped machine is breached, there better be a USB lying around, or a physical configuration change.

JFC, my Xbox is not airgapped.

(actually it currently is. But you get the point.)