Yep. Articulate attention is the name of the game (where "communication ability" sounds a little nebulous).

If you can't organize your thoughts, bring them to the forefront of your attention, name them, you're likely bad at handling abstractions. And abstractions are at the core of "technical ability" -- the ability to name things, find the appropriate abstraction boundaries, chisel structure out of chaos.

Articulate speech is the greatest human invention for a reason.

Testing for that (plus conscientiousness -- can you pay attention to details and get shit done?) during interviews makes perfect sense.