(in the context of "how's it going" and similar platitudes.)

This kind of thing drives crazy the kind of people who actually want to know how someone is, because people often assume that the question is meant insincerely....I’m one of the people driven crazy.

I'm driven crazy from the other direction. Such questions usually are insincere, and I hate having to come up with what amounts to a non-sequitur answer to a question someone doesn't mean in the first place. Checkout lines are a frequent offender. Sometimes I'll answer literally anyway, just on the principle that honesty is a good cure for nosiness -- feigned or otherwise.

Someone in another place once explained the social-ping nature of such exchanges to me, so I've heard most of this before. I think your explanation is clearer. The topic is interesting in a sort of why-must-this-be-complicated sense. When I want to signal my presence and willingness to communicate, I'll often literally say "ping." It works well enough.