The "lying" I referred to would be pretending that you're actually interested in a non-remote job for anything other than the money you need to survive until you can find a remote job. Even if you don't come right out and say you see them as a "take it and keep looking", that's still going to be obvious unless you're at sociopath levels of skill in lying. And if you're somebody who wouldn't still be in the industry if remote work hadn't become the norm, you're not going to be genuinely interested in any non-remote job for anything other than money until you can get something better.

>Even if you don't come right out and say you see them as a "take it and keep looking", that's still going to be obvious unless you're at sociopath levels of skill in lying.

I see it as no different then when they ask "why do you want this job"? Except they aren't even asking.

Many people know the primary reason is finances, but companies tend to not pick someone who answers that way. There's an "etiquette" to lie about certain factors unless you're in crazy demand, so who's really in the ethical quandry here?