I hear that so often down here that I guess I'm just used to it. Don't even give it much thought. As a matter of fact, if I were to, say, dine in a BBQ restaurant or maybe a meat and three, or some such place where the iced tea is sweet enough to pour over pancakes, and the waitress did NOT call me Hon or Sugar, I would take the omission as a black mark against the establishment.
On the opposite side of the coin, I once had a woman politely but firmly ask that I not call her Ma'am, as that was short for Madame, and that was another name for a woman who ran an establishment of questionable virtue, which she herself most certainly was not. I guess it takes all kinds.
I get called Hon a lot by waitresses. I sometimes want to say, a Hun is the same thing as Bosch, I am neither! I can remember being read out for calling an older woman Madam also, for just the reason you state!