More About So-called "Graphic Identity"

This subject has reared its ugly head yet again with a client. So... one more time, with gusto. 

Ten reasons why corporate "standards" do not matter: 1) no customer gives marks for consistency and neatness, 2) all things are consistent... depending on what criteria is used, 3) any adult can argue that x is actually consistent with y, 4) independent business units should look different from each other and the corporation -- they are discrete, 5) most practitioners are precious charlatans, 6) the practice lives in a time warp that rarely accommodates online media, 6) corporate programs of almost any sort are expensive, bureaucratic and abstract, 7) graphic standards are commonly mistaken for a means to "unifying a culture" -- they are not, 8) standards are unenforceable, 9) much time and energy is spent that could be applied to meaningful business endeavors, 10) the jargon used is unintelligible and theories bankrupt.