Maybe I don't understand the argument: what if `int the_third_parameter` lies on an odd column. How would one indent to that column using only tabs of an even shift width?
Though setting your editor up to do that automatically is an incredible pain, and it kind of forces you to use a monospace font.
Anyway, it seems like this system necessitates that the leading white space on a given line must be a mixture of both tab characters (\t) and spaces, unless one sets their editor to insert space characters as tabs (which is standard), and is obviously living in a state of sin.