[Practicality]

An interesting point. I think your citation adds to the point though.

In observing my "normal" peers, honestly, they do a lot of very strange things just to be considered normal.

I mean, it's pretty expensive just to keep up with current trend of sunglasses size or sock length, just to be seen as normal.

Not to mention that you have to hold your hands a certain way and talk incoherently.

There is a lot of "normalizing" behavior that becomes unnecessary when everyone has the capacity to see how inane and impractical such behavior really is.

[ycosynot]

A lot of smart men have been passionate about the proportion of columns, or the proportion of numbers, or even the aesthetics of curly braces. So why is it inane to care about the proportion of clothing, or the angle of the hand? I think people play to their strength. Also, the trend has to change as the world changes, because aesthetics is about the whole. So it's not because it's everchanging that it's necessarily arbitrary. The more one can afford not to care about it, the more impractical it is, but I wouldn't say it is impractical to society. It is architecture for the person.