> The main goal of this diff-based code review seems to be to prevent people from checking in bad code. Perhaps some people use code review that way but what i

> The main goal of this diff-based code review seems to be to prevent people from checking in bad code. Perhaps some people use code review that way but what is "bad code"? Code that doesn't match your style guide? Style checks are better applied by automated tools. If you mean code that isn't as polished as possible, then the solution is to agree upon expectations with the rest of your team appropriate to the project and/or task. Better goals for code review are knowledge transfer (both ways), design review (ideally on an early WIP branch), and catching mistakes and oversights.