i feel like this is being blown way out of proportion. learning git is never the bottleneck to becoming a software engineer, and it doesn't take longer than an hour to grasp the basics.
CS majors should learn it just by messing around with projects, but I don't see why an otherwise great candidate couldn't learn it very quickly
This is the nuance that people aren't able to understand anymore - something happened when the Internet came out, and we've never been the same.
The OP was just surprised that people don't know git, and indicated that he wouldn't hire a junior engineer who didn't know git, but, there's very likely nuance to this, and I don't think that one person's personal preference necessarily needs to be discussed and debated extensively on Twitter, HackerNews, etc.
In my opinion, git is a very popular tool, and lots, and lots of people use it - and it only takes 15-30 minutes to learn the basics - for this reason, I think that it is fair to be surprised that someone doesn't know it.
It's worth noting that the person who said that they'd only hire junior developers who know git isn't the President of the United States or anything, and can absolutely make their own hiring decisions.
It's perfectly reasonable to make your own hiring decisions, IMO, and asking people to know git, or the fundamentals of version control seems totally fair, IMO.
If people are willing to spend a few weeks solving leetcode problems, or answering mock interview questions, I feel like they could absolutely spend 15-30 minutes learning how to use git.
CS majors should learn it just by messing around with projects, but I don't see why an otherwise great candidate couldn't learn it very quickly