[itronitron]

If working on feature X involves cleaning up its dependencies and general build process then that is part of the work to complete feature X.

If one of your peers has a problem with that then it's worth considering how they learned of the additional work you put in.

If they are snooping through your commit logs or comments then that is creepy. If you are telling them then I encourage you to be more selective with the information that you share.

There is an art to making commits such that other team members aren't riled by 'off the books' code cleaning.