They aren't the same at all

A shared style guide is an external impetus to adjust behavior. It comes with external accountability, and also an implicit understanding that violating the shared expectation may bring consequences

"Everyone should just be less anal" is expecting an internal impetus to adjust behavior. There no external accountability, and there's no expectation that failing to do so has consequences

> The other issue is that linters/formatters don't "solve" all formatting/stylistic choices.

80% of a solution is better than 0%