It leaves space (pun intended) for bike shedding, or for inadvertently checking in code that voilates the coding standards. If you really want One True Format, then make it part of the language spec.
If a tool exists to format the code, it is of no consequence that a check in violates the formatting, as when that code is actually viewed it can (and should be) passed through that tool ahead of time such that the check in which violates the formatting guide lines is never actually viewed as such.