As far as I know, no one has disagreed with you. The other posters here are talking about something different. They are talking about the MANY pilgrims who call ahead and reserve on the phone, are not charged for their room, and then just don’t show up. These owners do not have the means or the custom of charging ahead of time; they rely on honesty and trust. So if you want to be able to pay for your room ahead of time and then not show up, you might want to plan your trip to “basically any hotel throughout the world.”
If you walk a camino, you will see that this is a real issue and it makes life very difficult for the owners of small establishments. Over and over, I see owners who have turned people away relying on the word of the person who called a few days before. And then they wind up with empty beds. Some pilgrims just make reservations in three or four places at different distances so they can walk as long as they want. Others make a reservation in a private place, have their backpack delivered to the albergue and then go pick up the bag, tell the owner they’ve changed their plans, and move on to the public albergue in town that doesn’t take bag transfers.
I personally think it is surprising that these owners continue to take reservations without a guarantee, but I think the request to call ahead to confirm on the day of the reservation is so trivial and so reasonable, that I cannot fathom how it produced such an angry response!
I also thought it was unnecessarily hostile, but since a word search reveals it has appeared in more than 200 threads, I left it up. I am surprised that such a tiny little issue, like being asked to call to confirm a reservation, has produced such a visceral and angry reaction.