No, it's not. I just checked into 6 hotels across 5 countries in both Eastern and Western Europe last month, and every single one needed a tapped physical credit card for a deposit on top of my pre-paid booking (sometimes via booking.com, sometimes direct with the hotel).
I can't remember ever NOT having to leave a CC for a deposit in any hotel I've ever stayed at in any country in my life. I'm sure it's happened, but it sure isn't remarkable when they DO require a card.
It's like we live in a different reality. I check into hotels every year in Europe for business trips and vacations. I book through sites like booking.com, I pay ahead via my bank, I don't give my debit card information, and I don't own a credit card.
Is it possibly a quirk of your country of origin? I'm assuming you're an EU citizen, and I'm not sure how EU rules work, but perhaps your country has overriding rules that prohibit deposits from being required? Or perhaps paying "via bank" has some implicit damage deposit mechanism going on? Can we ask for you to steal a bathrobe next time to see what happens, in the name of science? :D
I do most of my bookings from US soil with a credit card for guarantee or pre-pay (I do a mix of both), but never direct bank account. So one could imagine the rules for my bookings are different than yours. However I do sometimes make bookings mid-trip, and have not noticed a different damage policy, and, in Europe, I check in with an EU passport so I'd probably be subjected to the same rules/policies as any other European.
FYI, chatgpt gave me an unsatisfying answer that, basically, "European guests MIGHT not be asked for a deposit, sometimes, because they're local and therefore slightly more trusted", but it certainly doesn't sound like you should be escaping deposits 100% of the time. So perhaps there's another reason out there we've still not discovered.
I can't remember ever NOT having to leave a CC for a deposit in any hotel I've ever stayed at in any country in my life. I'm sure it's happened, but it sure isn't remarkable when they DO require a card.