Yeah I'm always shocked at how frequently it's used by my colleagues. I will say it is used in a lot of non-writing disciplines, but I remember my first English class putting that thing in my hands and ugh.

It's part of a broader issue in writing instruction that mistakes etiquette for style.

I've read it before. It's a bit of a rant and is also probably a bit unfair--but I'm not sure it's wrong either.

Ironically, it was ignored by the authors in much of their writing, both in "Elements" and other works.

Yes, if they'd followed their own suggestions their writing would not be as well loved as it is.