And I've worked at places where developers are so intimidated by the "don't check on a commit that so-and so wouldn't approve of" that they have lost significan

And I've worked at places where developers are so intimidated by the "don't check on a commit that so-and so wouldn't approve of" that they have lost significant work. I would say help people work in a branch or some such and encourage micro-commits. A clean bisect-able history is a laudable goal, but it is one concern among many.