This may often be the case, but it's not necessarily true. I've hired software developers for many years. I believe that passion is a necessary but not sufficient condition for being a highly effective developer.
Passion is certainly necessary, but when it's used as a smokescreen for how poorly you're treating the developers, calling it a requirement is flat-out wrong. I certainly see no problem with using it in recruitment spiels; it's using it during the job offer that's a problem.