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I'm sure you're right about not having quite as much elbow room at google compared to other companies - but saying that I'm not sure strictly enforcing a style guide is great example a developers freedom being quashed.

Anywhere you're working on a codebase that you want to be maintainable having a style guide that is strictly enforced seems like a no brainer. Keeping in my mind google could have any number of developers working on a codebase

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I don't object to having a style guide. I object to the extent of it. Some rules of good practice make sense. But having a really extensive style guide shifts code review away from what it should be focusing on -- correctness, clarity, efficiency -- towards punctilious enforcement of minutiae.

Here's Google's Java style guide, if you want to have a look yourself: https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html

When the codebase is so big and you're hiring so many engineers it might be actually a good idea to have such an extensive style guide.

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