Not a fan of that, either. It just seems like the kind of command that new users should avoid because they won't anticipate any consequences and experienced users do avoid because they can anticipate any consequences.
I think experienced users use the common git workflows, which usually avoids this situation.
But, FWIW, this is a litmus test for me of one's true git prowess. Merge commits like "Merged origin/master into master" tell me the user doesn't know how to use git (as in: doesn't know how to rebase).
If you know how to rebase, I don't know why you wouldn't have this set by default, because undoing it if it accidentally happens is more work -- and requires rebasing anyway.