Okay, pedantics aside. I don't care if you boldly split an infinitive, or dangle a participle. At least not so long as you don't dangle it in a ludicrous place, as in Strunk's example:

Being in a dilapidated condition, I was able to buy the house very cheap.

The list of stuff I pointed to above is stuff that authors routinely screw up that just LOOKS WRONG to the reader. It breaks people out of the story. Even people who would write that way themselves are unsettled by these errors. Then maybe they get distracted.

And if you're trying to convince a reader to part with their lunch money to buy your book, the last thing you want is to have them lose interest in your story and start thinking about their laundry, or their boyfriend, or your grammar.

Please, guys. I'm a linguist too, and I'm well aware of the difference between Romance and Germanic grammar (since I had to learn French, Italian and Swedish all the hard way.) And English grammar is NOT illogical. (The spelling is, but not the grammar.)

English Grammar is a joy. It is a more refined and powerful version of Nordic grammar, or Northern Germanic if you prefer, and it's quite consistent. It includes several extra features over its similar but simpler cousins (like Nordic or Dutch) that make it possible to pack ideas more powerfully and tightly.

But only if you take the trouble to use them correctly.

Of all the thousands of ways that people can and do use them incorrectly, I've gone to the trouble of picking just five above that really force me to edit an otherwise great story. This is a service to you. It's to help you sharpen your writing in a powerful way, with a minimum of learning and effort. I hope you appreciate it.