Again, in my experience, that isn't it. It's like NASA's rules. People who write garbage commit messages and have a chaotic and unconsidered version control workflow, generally lack the skill to do otherwise. As they lack version control skills, they haven't had the opportunity to internalise the benefits. Those with the skill to make disciplined use of version control tend to do so on every project, as the effort required is modest and is repaid even on minor projects.
We're talking about low-hanging fruit here. It's not like adopting the MISRA C programming style, which really does severely restrict the programmer.
Sloppy use of version control doesn't make you more effective. It just doesn't work that way.
Torvalds himself writes up proper commit messages even for his toy projects. [0][1] I really doubt it takes him much time or effort. You really think he's not pragmatic?
This is classic dogmatics over pragmatics.
The carpenter understands how to use every tool, they are just pragmatic about its use.