The problem with this customization is that different styles end up with different allowed character counts in a single line. For linters to work as expected you still have to hardcode the number of spaces a tab should count as in the linter's config. At which point you could just use spaces and treat indentation as part of the content—not presentation.
I used to prefer spaces until I came across an argument which convinced me to convert:
Indentation can be something very subjective, some prefer two spaces, others four and yet again others maybe eight. With spaces everyone is forced to use one particular style. With tabs everybody can configure it exactly the way they want and it will be displayed in one unified style.