I think I've never been in a project where standups were before 10 in the morning. At some point you have to decide if you're working in a team or not -- first people will leave the office around 16 so there's only a limited time window.

If you are regularly late to any meeting, it's problematic (assuming the meeting is worth having, of course). If I have a co-located team with good interaction that mostly works core hours, I actually don't want a standup meeting. Everything I would do at standup is easier to do by simply talking to the people I want to talk to. However, if you have a team where at least some people work remotely, or work different hours (either by habit or by time zone), then it is incredibly helpful to have a meeting where everyone can be together at the same time. People coming late to that meeting make it difficult to organise your day. If the meeting starts and you wait, it can be very disruptive. If you don't wait, then you don't get to talk to that team member -- who will often end up getting distanced from the rest of the team.

Having said that, many organisations have standup meetings that aren't worth the time they spend. However, I don't think you can say apriori that this is definitely the case.

I mean it's a useful meeting and therefor not arbitrary. If that's the game they have to play with us skeptically efficient types, I'm for it. I don't have a problem working, I have a problem doing BS for appearances sake.