I don't think it "has to be done" at all. I'd say the vast majority don't have it, have never had it and will never get it. Nor does it automatically place you at the top of the stack either. Its just valued a bit if you have one, that's all. And that's 100% reasonable.

As for the volunteering, they're clearly not finding 100-120 Mother Teresas a month. Considering something as simple as a one day Habitat build or less than half of one day with Pilots for Kids per year (and many other things) are fully legitimate and "check that box" so to speak, its kind of hard to rationalize not being able to check it. No one is that busy.

Its probably something that in some form any top tier job would expect in a candidate to one degree or another. Considering how incredibly easy it is to "fill the square" especially relative to the rewards of a multimillion dollar career during a fantastic time to get hired considering advancement/QOL, its absolutely laughable to complain about that even in theory IMO.