Yes and no. Given the context of the authors ( and this also includes employment context, socioeconomic and personality factors for everyone involved ), the be

Yes and no. Given the context of the authors ( and this also includes employment context, socioeconomic and personality factors for everyone involved ), the best practice is something that has been "proved" to work well. So no, it's not just a preference, but in practical terms many times it's a preference that some people agree it worked ( in their context ). And let's not even talk about the "best practices" and technologies created just to sell you something. I think by now it's not a secret that most "developer evangelists" or even "famous" developers are just people doing sales and marketing, some of them don't even realize it such is their ego trip.