> And if you can't depend on it, why have it?

That's a bit rich. There are other conventions in programming that you can't depend on technically but serve a real purpose. Identifier naming and comments are the first that come to mind.

If a language gives you a choice of token that has no semantic distinction then different people will adopt different semantics by convention.

As an aside, calling a tool "opinionated" is code for "my conventions are better than yours". That's fine if I don't have any conventions or I can't decide, but if I have decided, then it's just offensive.