It's ok to just say, "Hello"

Running around the neighbourhood I always say hello to the people I pass - newspaper sellers, pedestrian commuters, security guards and construction workers. Something I've noticed is that most of the time the standard response is "hello-how-are-you?" or just, "how-are-you?".

I prefer to just say hello and to ignore the "how-are-you" part because 1) they don't know me and they certainly don't care what my response is to their question and 2) I don't ask it in return because it is of no interest to me how they are.

This applies to general interactions too.

Asking people "How are you?" is just a habit of speech and the response of "Fine, thanks" or "I'm good, thank you" is standard. No thought; no interest either in the answer given and received.

I do ask this of people that I know, where I care about their answer. Although, because I'm in an anti-how-are-you mood, I'm focusing on asking something more specific.