That's like saying that a "counter-argument" to wearing a seatbelt is that drivers shouldn't be getting into accidents in the first place. Yes, it would be nice if all code was well-commented and well-factored with well-named functions, classes and variables, and we should all strive to make code like that. And if that never failed, then perhaps we wouldn't need any other best practices or rules to help us along.[1] But we all know the real world is not like that. We need all the help we can get. Having good practices for writing good code is not, I repeat not an argument against having good practices for commit comments. You make it out to be an either/or proposition. It's not.