One of the things I like about hierarchies is that such disputes should be handled by someone higher up with coding expertise. Someone or a team who can weigh in things like long term maintenance and cost. Perhaps there are similar issues elsewhere that the proposed solution, or an alternative, could solve. There's a need for someone higher up the chain, if developers can just add disputed complexity.

I see architects as the people to go to under such circumstances. They were not always interested in small things like whitespace, but I think they should take it seriously if it's brought up.