That just sounds like a standard greeting and small talk to me. People resort to it to help fill in the awkward silences they have to endure while in the company of other people they don't know or don't know what to talk about. Not that I'm making a case that people aren't superficial, but the fact of the matter is that most people really don't care how you're doing if they don't know you. Why? Because they don't know you. When they ask "how are you doing" do you ever reply with anything more detailed than "fine" or "not bad" etc.? If you ever do, they're probably sorry they asked. People have enough of their own problems that they probably really want to hear about other people's all the time too.