Would it have been clearer what I meant if I said "Always be orderly, even if you think you don't have to"? How about "Always use 'use strict', even if you think you don't have to?"

Most quests for a software methodology seem to boil down to a search for an "Always do it like this", e.g. always encapsulate (meaning, insulate the small parts from the behavior of the whole... this might or might not be done using OOP).

I would contend that every one of these principles is the enemy of strict parsimony. Should you never use encapsulation unless you know you need to, or should you always use (some form of) encapsulation, so you don't have to worry about whether you need to?