> Understanding how you got to the goal -- encoding all the fumbles and disoriented thoughts right in the commit history -- that can be a genuine benefit to the reader.

Disagree.

Sorry, but I'd rather be rather inclined to read commit history like this: (whether it's reviewing others' code or my own at a later time)

- Add functionality X to function y()

- Fix a bug in y(): ...

- Fix a bug in z(): ...

than

- X

- oops

- fuck, typo fix

- do it another way

- ok, y is fixed now

- another typo fix

- it has a bug, fix it

- z has the same bug

- typo fix

Whereas the latter can be quite common during dev cycle so as to keep it to yourself. It's not about 'pretending' at all.