Happened to me recently during a call. Perhaps they could have phrased it better, like “why are you open to opportunities” (which sounds quite dumb too tbh)
As a programmer my soft skills are as important as my hard skills. I’ve never worked on software alone: coordination, coherent and clear communication, collaboration. It’s all integral to the role.
I believe it is most of what has led to me being promoted up to staff eng level. I’m very good technically but so are many other engineers.