Many people do not have side projects. Few people working as software engineers were not tested in some way.
I think it's more useful and more fair to give candidates some direction when I request something. What scope is enough? What tests are enough? We define side project differently or you would expect much more time from candidates than I do.
I used to think so. But real tasks have acceptance criteria. Seeing how candidates work with loose criteria has told me more than telling them in effect to read my mind.
