[jlg23]

> I've seen projects waste so much effort making the code uniform

This one is usually an automated task. Everyone agrees on a coding style, configures his/her development environment and first time you work on a non-std file you convert and commit it (most things are done by your editor/IDE, if configured correctly).

> If the code works and is readable, who cares if it varies somewhat from similar code.

Me. I regularly have to clean up after lone warriors who talk like you have "delivered features".

A coding style does not represent some universal truth about code esthetics: On one hand it allows programmers to read code with a well defined set of expectations, on the other hand it helps prevent some of the big annoyances for reviewers.

The point is not to like some specific style but to adhere to it. It takes you 5 minutes to adapt your own code to the project's coding style, it will take others 10 minutes to do so and, unfortunately the most common case, it will take hours over a single year when nobody fixes your coding style and everybody who has to touch your code trips over the same things.