Avoid Cargo Culting

Do not cargo cult settings in proto files. If you are creating a new proto file based on existing schema definitions, don’t apply option settings except for those that you understand the need for.

Best Practices Specific to Editions

Avoid applying editions features except when they’re actually necessary. Features in .proto files signal the use of either experimental future behaviors or deprecated past behaviors. Best practices for the latest edition will always be the default. New proto schema definition content should remain feature-free, except if you want to early-adopt a feature for future behavior that’s being rolled out.

Copying-forward feature settings without understanding why they are set can lead to unexpected behaviors in your code.