Most people have settled with somewhere between 2-4 spaces, and a max of 80-120 character lines. I have an opinion on what I prefer in that range, but I'll live with a variety of stuff. And most others can as well.
Yes, why? You were the one that said:
> If you don't want that, then each tool has to be configured separately, with a different method for each.
First of all how deeply you go when you align text isn't particularly important. But actually aligning it is super important for it to be readable. It is therefore hard to read a mix of tabs and spaces with the tabstop set wrong.
Secondly while how deep isn't as important, research has found that comprehension drops outside of the range from 2-4 spaces. Therefore the 8 space default that every tool uses for tabs is suboptimal even if you consistently only have tabs everywhere.
The fact that many tools across many environments with many users all have to get it right, and the standard default is bad, makes tabs worse for collaboration.
Yes, you may not notice or care. But if you're told about why other people don't like it, and dismiss them with flippant answers, you're going to make those other people unhappy.
Remember that the key to successful collaboration is to be strict in what you emit, and generous in what you receive. No matter how unreasonable you think the other is, in this case you're failing as well.