It's useful in situations where you don't have the entire commit message expanded on screen. For example, when running `git blame` on a file, or the same functi

It's useful in situations where you don't have the entire commit message expanded on screen. For example, when running `git blame` on a file, or the same functionality in a web UI like here: https://vincenttunru.com/img/Commits-are-documentation/annotations.png https://vincenttunru.com/img/Commits-are-documentation/annot... As for regular code, similarly, there are situations where the code doesn't take up the full screen, e.g. in split-screen mode, or viewing a side-by-side diff. That said, there's a balance to be struck between facilitating those use cases and facilitating the common use case of reading (or even writing) the code, and there's no clear "right" answer. Which is probably why there are so many debates on this.