Well, rules are important and knowing them is too. Ignoring them can then be a choice, otherwise it's just ignorance....

But yes I fully understand your point.

It won't kill a man but it's still incorrect syntax and a faux pas, it's fine if you're fine with that, but that doesn't make it standard.

Also it's not really new information that international speakers speak English better than natives, just look at all the "their" "they're" confusion that happens when someone learned English as a native but not when they go through the whole shebang of learning about possessives and articles, so just because a native English speaker ignores a rule in their own language that doesn't really speak much about the language, it says more about the speaker.