When I was a young man I could and did ride weeks on end, doing a hundred miler every day. I could not help but just hammer all day, self contained, camp out, and do it again the next day. But I had been riding almost daily for years and everything, body-wise, was in tip top shape.
Nowadays, not so much. Things like work, surgical procedures, family obligations, advanced age all conspire (or have conspired) against my time on a bicycle. Consequently, I'm not in the shape I'd like to be. I feel like rest days are somewhat mandatory for me now. But for me a rest day just means taking it easy, like light hiking, perhaps doing a few easy miles in the afternoon or maybe just napping all day long and not going hammering on my bicycle like a madman. Cycling is physical and one needs to listen to their body.
tl;dr One size does not fit all, all the time