I do the same, but from reading a lot of comments in similar threads here, it seems that we're a minority. Many (most?) employers want to hire people with only the exact skills & technologies they're currently using.
I was hired into my original position here knowing absolutely nothing about the language or the technology. Like you, my manager just wanted raw talent that could be retrained and it worked out for him. That's probably colored my interviewing practices over the years, but an awful lot of people don't want to take that kind of a risk.
"but an awful lot of people don't want to take that kind of a risk"
I would agree with and extend your remarks in that its a window into how the company handles risk. There have been companies that have blamestorming meetings to punish the people who selected employees that didn't work out. I had an experience with that leveraging an inside contact for info, and I was pretty pissed off at that time, but now that I'm older and wiser I am so unimaginably happy I didn't get a job at a company mismanaged like that.
I was hired into my original position here knowing absolutely nothing about the language or the technology. Like you, my manager just wanted raw talent that could be retrained and it worked out for him. That's probably colored my interviewing practices over the years, but an awful lot of people don't want to take that kind of a risk.