Many principles and concepts are based on ideal scenarios when we know that realistically there are different contexts and situations when you also need to break the rule. I am not suggesting that we should cut everything out, but rather that we try to understand good graph design rules and what effects it has on the data-ink ratio. You'll find that some best practices actually increase the data-ink ratio, while others reduce it.
Many principles and concepts are based on ideal scenarios when we know that realistically there are different contexts and situations when you also need to break the rule. I am not suggesting that we should cut everything out, but rather that we try to understand good graph design rules and what effects it has on the data-ink ratio. You'll find that some best practices actually increase the data-ink ratio, while others reduce it.