Imagine for a sec that you are a trades person (plumber, electrician, carpenter, or the like) and you are meeting with a prospective client when they spring the following question on you: "tell me why you want to work on my house specifically and not one of my neighbour's houses instead?" It's a weird thing to ask, right? It's kind of understood that this is just a job and that you would be contented to ply your trade for any client who is reasonable to work for.
You probably see this next point coming from a mile away: certain tech companies ask questions of the form "why do you want to work at X? what's special about us?" of their software developer job candidates and it's toxic for much the same reason that it would be toxic to interrogate your plumber about why they came to work for you. Some tech managers may believe that people who really "want" to work for them will make sacrifices and do more work for less pay. The reality is that few, if any, of these companies are offering jobs that people would still want to work at if they did not need to make a living. Wanting to do tech work primarily because it is lucrative is fine.
I find myself doing a double-take when asked this sort of thing during a job interview process. Clearly I want the job, I am spending valuable time and brain cycles on the interview process. Moreover, we should be talking about how valuable I am, because the potential upside to employing somebody like me is enormous. Most employers would be lucky to have that opportunity.
Generally speaking, don't settle for a job where your employer treats you like you're easily replaced. If they really believe that, they're delusional and you should get out as soon as you can. When they're already asking you to talk about how great they are during a job interview, that whole "you're not special, we're special" thing has already started. Just walk away and let that employer be somebody else's problem.
It's true, "tell us why you want to work here" is a nonsense question, but I bet if you ask people in trades "how often do you have to fake enthusiasm" you'd find a few raised hands.
Thing is, there's another meaning to this question:
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You might think it's "Can you tell us a fact about our company?" and maybe that's a small part of it. Other questions filter for candidates who haven't done research.
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You might think it's "Tell me that the (my) company is cool." and when a founder is involved, you'd be right. Working in an early startup often means being an emotional support programmer for capricious entrepreneurs, terrified from having to pay rent for the first time in their life, albeit on an office. You have to reassure them in weekly 1:1s, them's the breaks.
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When you hear it from anyone below c-suite, it might be better to pretend you heard. "Tell me I made the right decision joining this company".
You aren't meant to talk about what you care about, you're meant to affirm the interviewers beliefs about the job. You don't get hired for looking smart, you get hired for making people feel smart.