[WalterGR]

> The scheme proposed in TFA is not particularly amenable to automation

It is. The author just assumes syntax unaware tools. Moreover, that quote is about converting to the system, not automating it while writing code or maintaining it once established. (But syntax-aware tooling could do all of that.)

Re. people actually using such tools unless forced to, yes, that's definitely a whole other issue. Some organizations solve this by modifying the commit pipeline: auto-formatting code, or detecting and rejecting commits that don't pass muster.