It makes sense for smart pointers like Box<T>, Rc<T>, Arc<T>. And actually yes, Deref is also implemented for &T and &mut T and it does dereference in that case.
But what about String and Vec<T>? Are those smart pointers or "pointer-like"? To me it's a stretch to call them that. They do store a pointer, but it seems like an implementation detail rather than the essence of what they represent.
And then what about ArrayVec<T>, ArrayString, ManuallyDrop<T>? Those don't even store a pointer, they are quite clearly not "pointers". And they implement Deref.
That's why I say it is a more general "unwrap" / "coerce" operation that is used implicitly in certain situations, rather than specifically "dereferencing".