I took nearly a year off in the 1990s, just "doing coffee shops and bookstores." I read a lot, did some recreational programming and a little travel. Basically took it easy after a number of years of high-hour, high-visibility projects (and a high-hour, low-visibility startup that essentially crashed).
Never had any trouble with that explanation.
If they don't like it, you probably don't want to work there anyway.
Not complicated. It means, "you probably wouldn't want to work there."
Interviewing is a two-way street. If your potential employer is intensely interested in your leisure time then that's an interesting signal, because it's unusual (I've never had a single follow-up question to why I took nearly a year off) and could point to a bad culture (lots of possibilities here, including the company being a modern sweatshop or doing very close monitoring and metricization).
Work is not optional for many people. I know lots of software developers that are living on the bubble because of the high cost of raising a family in the Bay Area.
Never had any trouble with that explanation.
If they don't like it, you probably don't want to work there anyway.