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I've never worked with someone who ever stated "How long is a piece of string?" and wasn't a total pain to work with. Doesn't even matter which side I was on, it's painful to hear it even if you're part of the team that made that statement.

It's always a bad faith response. If the requirements are hazy, state that. If the task requires investigation and there's a high degree of exploratory work, state that (and state how long you'd be willing to explore before pivoting). If there's multiple outcomes or options that can lead to wildly different time estimates, disclose that.

Every time I've seen it uttered it meant "you're too dumb to understand what I'm doing and you should just shut up, give me money/time and leave me alone". And it's usually also people who overvalue their own abilities that say it too.