Is it really so much effort to format your patch as required in comparison to doing the work to create the improvements you claim?

The simple answer is no. If you think about the amount of work it would create for somebody to refactor your code vs. getting you to do it right in the first place.

Can you imagine what the source would look like if every developer used a different coding method? If there was no consistency in the API? It would be a nightmare to try to use if you couldn't consistently know that methods are camelcase or underscored, etc. etc.

You have to realize that in order for the maintainers to effectively manage all of the contributions, they have to insist that, at a minimum, that the form of the code conforms to some basic guidelines. Otherwise, the code base quickly gets messy and confusing for people. You should view your goal as making the ability for them to merge in your stuff as painless/frictionless as possible.