> For me, even though rebasing comes with some trappings, I still greatly prefer it to the alternative, which is to have merge commits cluttering up the commit history.

The purpose of history is to remember. Rewriting history, whether git or in life, is bad; outside of the context of don't use it on public repos. Such advice is similar to saying, only point the shotgun away from you when firing. If you have to remember such a rule, it's best to avoid it.