[jerlam]

"Always turn the lights off" makes some sense to a shop. Older cars don't have automatic headlights. The mechanics might not want to figure out which is which. If they guess wrong, the car may drain its battery and cause even more problems.

Plus, working around very bright lights, especially if the car has been elevated, can be really annoying.

[switchbak]

Well there's always "don't fuck with the way they had it", or "put it back the way it was".

Also, in Canada "Older cars don't have automatic headlights" has not been true since the 90's. It's only recently we even allow them to turn off when it's running.

The point about not wanting lights in your eyes when working on it makes sense, but you're not going to have the car running very often when it's on a hoist.