Beginners spend a while learning to use Emacs as a simple text editor before they're able to do anything more advanced. Their ability to intelligently customize is minimal. Meanwhile experts have automated dotfile deployment, so defaults are almost irrelevant to them. Therefore defaults should be set for inexperienced users.
Inexperienced users will mostly use Org for longform prose, since they haven't learned its database functions yet. Since Org aspires to be a personal info manager, it should prioritize prose presentation above code conventions. Concerns about terminal impact appear to be moot, since terminal ignores most font settings.
