Standards are a funny thing. First off, they are subject to perspective. Second off, they are meant as a starting point. They are not rules or laws but standards. This gives us a starting point or common frame of reference for a team of people from various backgrounds and experience levels to come in behind someone else and pick up a piece of work and carry it on. Each job in our various disciplines has standard accepted practices. These vary from company to company and region to region. I have no personal experience with jobs in other countries, but I'd veture to say that there are even differences there as well. The point is that when you are new to a specific project or job position within a company, you start out with the standards. We all come accross things that will not fit neatly into those standards. This is where we diverge a bit. Most often, out of habit, we will blend that variance into that standard. Not because we are really thinking about it but because it's easier to deal with it. It's also easier to communicate with our co-workers in regards to it. I've worked on teams with 15 people all drawing in there own little ways. When anyone else tried to work on something that someone else had put together, it was a nightmare to follow. Other jobs I've been in have people drawing to such a rigid set of standards that they may as well have been called laws. Deviation from them was taboo. Any way you look at it, it's all subjective. Just like the work that most of us do. If we are true profeesionals who are trying to better ourselves in our craft, it will not matter if you can or cannot modify the PG file or load your own LISPs and menus or control your line weights with polylines instead of by color. What matters is that you can communicate the product you are trying to document for others to use effectively.
This is all just my opinion though so don't take it personally or I'll have to bash you over the head with an empty beer bottle.
Because that is my standard way of telling you to snap the f*** out of it.