publications, from magazines and newspapers to book publishers. Every one of the publications or publishers had a style sheet. Many of those were quite long and complex. If a writer wants to work for a publisher, following its style sheet is the best way to avoid conflicts. Style sheets change over time. It's up to the writers to pay attention to those changes and follow the publisher's style sheet. If you didn't do that, someone had to fix what you wrote. If they have to do that, it's annoying to them. If you make habit of it, you'll find yourself with fewer and fewer assignments for work.
One of the most common things that changed over time were issues like the one you raise. Why did they change? Because readers told them they wanted the changes. Publishers have to please their readers and writers have to please their publishers. From time to time, you'd get something that informed you of changes in the style sheet. If you were smart, you noted those changes and altered how your writings looked in terms of those changes.
Did some of the changes annoy me? Why, yes, they did, and not infrequently. Did I refuse to follow the style sheet? I did not. Occasionally, I'd have a discussion with my editor or the copy editors about style sheet issues. A couple of times, I instigated changes by pointing out changes in how words and concepts were being handled by other publications. Mostly, though, I wrote my articles and followed the style sheet used by the publisher for which I was writing.
Long ago, I stopped believing that I, alone, had the right way to say everything. There is no universal right way. Now, the word Black gets capitalized when it has to do with race identification. No big deal. White doesn't get the same treatment. Again, no big deal. If I'm troubled by that, I can write around the word and avoid the issue altogether. Mostly, though, I just followed the style sheet. 
If you don't like the publication's style, that's unfortunate. You could always write for someone else if it was that important to you. Most often it wasn't, though.
Anyhow, unless you do write for publication, you don't have to pay any attention to it at all. So, in the end, it doesn't matter, does it?
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