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The difference between tradition for a reason, and tradition for tradition’s sake is this:

You tell your kid not to stand on the top step of a stepladder. It’s not safe. You’re quite likely to hurt yourself. You tell him this. He tells his kid the same things, but doesn’t pass along the reason. His kid isn’t very bright and starts to think that the top steps of ladders are somehow inherently evil. His kids take it a step further and suddenly the top steps of everything are evil. Their kids take it a step further and the tops of things are evil. Eventually no-one climbs mountains or trees, no-one lives in the top floors of apartment buildings, and everyone is wearing a hat so no-one else can see the (evil!) top of their head.

Of course, no-one falls off the tops of ladders, but not because they’re sensible and can tell that standing on the top step is a bit of a silly thing to do. Instead, its because they’ve vilified the tops of things, which is far sillier than standing on the top step of a ladder. It causes untold more difficulties because those who (rightly) go against the grain have to learn the lesson about ladders the hard way.