just had another painful code review. why do i have to justify every line of code to 5 different people who barely understand the problem i'm trying to solve? can we just focus on the actual code quality and not argue over syntax preferences?

Sounds like you need to work on your communication skills, bud. Code reviews are there to catch issues and improve the codebase, not stroke your ego. If you can't handle a little feedback, this industry ain't for you.