I can't imagine many development managers do that. And even if they did, I'm not convinced that many would make a good assessment that way.
Most of the managers I've had over my career have been poor coders. I'd hate to have them judging me by their conception of what good code is.
EDIT: I guess many people have had better managers than I've had. So my "most" and "many" may be off base.
Wow, just a reminder that everyone's experience is unique and can't always be generalized. My first thought was "I can't imagine a development manager not doing that."
Seriously, I feel for you. Essentially all of the engineering managers I've had at one point or another have been coders. Some were well, well out of practice by the time they were my manager, and as I moved up in my career my managers were less interested in the details of my code, but I could always talk with them about highly technical concepts. I really feel bad for folks who think their engineering managers can't judge good code. And as someone who's also been an eng manager, I can't imagine managing devs without having an understanding of good code.
And you're right that it's absurd to try to judge developers without an understanding of good code. I just figured the world is absurd.