‘Hello’ is a really useful word to write. I do make a couple of squiggles first to get the ink flowing again, especially if I’ve not used the pen for a bit, but ‘hello’ is mostly up and down strokes, so you can see how the nib feels, and if the tip is likely to catch on the paper.

Plus the double-loop of the consecutive ls is good to see how bad the bleed is, and mimics the curve of the higher and lower-curved letters (f, g, y), and the word is short enough that you can write it one-handed without needing to lift you hand off the page, or steady the paper.

(I agree that the pen is there to get the words down, but the point of testing a pen is first to make sure that the ink flows nicely and second to make sure the pen itself has been well-designed. If it’s all weird corners, or has a weirdly smooth grip, or has been created by someone labouring under the misapprehension that what the world needs is a really, really fine-nibbed ballpoint of all things, you’re going to be all over the place. I always feel it’s easier to test against that if you write an actual word rather than making random squiggles; how can you tell if a squiggle came out wrong?)

Having said all that, yeah, when I design pages (admittedly rarely) I’m much more likely to have a nearly empty page that says “Information on page subject goes here” than to fill it with Lorem Ipsum, because a page full of nonsense text is a slightly more effort than a simple statement of intent, and doesn’t seem to add anything…