Perhaps it was indeed my personal thing. Maybe it's just that i'm introverted? But i'd hate to be bugged when in a cafe and if it ever happened (it never did), i'd probably stop visiting that particular place seeing it as a magnet for obnoxious types.
And yes, i don't do any networking at all, literally never met any person i did business with, in 25 years of career.
Or maybe, that is my European perspective? Because i probably never seen people doing that. There is an old observation that "networking" is American only cultural phenomenon and it doesn't exist in Europe - maybe it's one of the ways it manifests itself?