Though, for context, here's the first paragraph after the introduction: The coding rules defined here primarily target the development of mission critical

Though, for context, here's the first paragraph after the introduction: The coding rules defined here primarily target the development of mission critical flight software written in the C programming language. This means that the rules are focused on embedded software applications, which generally operate under stricter resource constraints than, e.g., ground software. I don't think it's at all surprising that the coding standards governing critical software running in resource-constrained environments should be so conservative. But I also don't know that the priorities motivating those standards generalize well to what most programmers do for a living.