Why would you penalize people for this? Most CEOs do the same thing - do you feel its dishonest or something?
To me, it's more of a "yes, this is dumb, but it's a mistake that someone could make out of naivete or lack of confidence". It doesn't strike me as something particularly misleading (since, as you say, you see right through it). In fact, given all the outright lying that already happens in hiring, I would say this is one of the more innocuous annoyances. (And it does annoy me, but I'm annoyed at how people use the phrase, not at the one particular candidate.)
To me, it's more of a "yes, this is dumb, but it's a mistake that someone could make out of naivete or lack of confidence". It doesn't strike me as something particularly misleading (since, as you say, you see right through it). In fact, given all the outright lying that already happens in hiring, I would say this is one of the more innocuous annoyances. (And it does annoy me, but I'm annoyed at how people use the phrase, not at the one particular candidate.)