select a
        , b
        , count(*) as count
    from table
    join table2
        on table.key1 = table2.key1
        and table.key2 = table2.key2
        and DATEADD('day, 1, table.key3) = table2.key3
    where cond1
        and cond2
    group by a, b
    order by count desc

    SELECT
        a,
        b,
        count(*) as count
    FROM
        table
    JOIN
        table2
    ON
            table.key1 = table2.key1
        AND
            table.key2 = table2.key2
        AND
            -- 1 day apart
            DATEADD('day', 1, table.key3) = table2.key3
    WHERE
            cond1
        AND
            cond2
        AND
            (
                cond3
            OR
                cond4
            )
    GROUP BY
        (a, b)
    ORDER BY
        count desc,
        a asc
    LIMIT
        1000
    ;

How much whitespace you need is completely dependent on what exactly you are writing.

I will say my use case is probably different than others, I'm a Data Scientist so I write a ton of throwaway SQL and stuff that will only be seen by me. If I'm dealing with an existing SQL codebase or production stuff, definitely try to keep it more easily diff-able (like left justifying the keywords, really only caring about rivers in the join/where clauses), or just follow whatever patterns are already there.

I can give a few thoughts on why here:

- it doesn't work for collaborative efforts unless everyone is using the same linter or IDE with the same configuration. Not friendly to edits outside of that ecosystem (e.g. open source). - there are other ways of writing SQL (e.g. dbt style guide) which are still very readable while also being much faster to write by hand without the need for an auto-formatter. - some of these patterns such as the from and join indentations have nothing to do with readability and are purely stylistic. Nothing wrong with that, but there's nothing objectively better about this pattern - it just comes down to how you're used to reading SQL.

I can take a stab at justifying that - commas are used to form lists (eg, 1, 2, 3) and text (like "order by count") are supposed to be left justified.

You may be right that there are good reasons to format SQL while ignoring the commas and rules for writing English text. I personally think you are right. But if most people believed that then there'd be enough support to rewrite SQL with a decent modern syntax. Say allowing training commas before a from.

So the existence of SQL is, in a weird way, evidence that your view is uncommon.