Now that I think about it, I have only encountered this in Cozumel. At dive resorts and on liveaboards, and on Bonaire, the dive ops have asked only that we do a shakeout dive, which I suppose fulfills several goals: check for proper weighting and exposure protection, equipment check, and for those who haven't dived in a while, just get in an easy dive as practice. But they are not really evaluating your ability to dive certain sites.
Rubbish: if the DM is in the water with you, they are evaluating your ability to dive.
I've been on "advanced" dives in CR after a couple of dives with the op, and there is at least one wreck on Roatan that would count as "deep" but no op's going to insist on seeing your deep cert after they see you dive. If you look closely at Internet descriptions of Bonaire and Curacao dive sites, you'll see the word "advanced" often enough too.
It's not that uncommon if you look closely.