Brick laying is a job where the progress is immediate and easy to assess. The better analogy would be of hiring a civil engineer - would you hire one to work on your project based just on a certificate?

None of my civil engineer friends do white board interviews unless it was a new grad hire. They mostly go off of work experience, degree, and certifications.

Do they get to talk about bridges they build on their spare time?

Wait, you don't build bridges in your spare time? You don't even have anything on BridgeHub? Immediate reject.

I wonder if hospitals ask candidate doctors about the hobby surgeries they perform at home in their spare time.

Well obviously most doctors don't have an OR at home, so they practice their going surgeries at a co-operating space.

How do you hire a civil engineer? Do you ask them to solve a series of construction puzzles for few hours?

the FE and PE licensing exams are essentially a one-time test of "hey, can you solve these puzzles / do you know these facts".