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How would multiple cursors be affected by this? I use a proportional typeface and multiple cursors for all sorts of things, I can't really see how these concepts are even related.

As you say, use automatic formatting and you don't need to worry about line-length. (Otoh, having a mandatory max line length makes about as much sense as having a max identifier length or a max lines per file.)

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You can't drag a cursor down vertically and know what will happen, something I do surprisingly often because it is very powerful.

Line length guide lines makes sense for me as a visual indicator of what will wrap when I hit the max lines per file. They are also nice ways to gauge when you are nesting too deep or making overly complicated expressions.

Max line length allows you to do nice things with window management and diff tool layout and not spend forever moving around to see the text. I am a convert after thinking it didn't matter. Now it being 80 characters is arbitrary but so would almost any other number be.

Typically, when you do column selection, the lines are identical to the left of the cursor or you're selecting the end of the lines, which both still work in a proportional font.

Max column length (line length) does make sense in one case. It simplifies side-by-side comparison. We have a max 100 column rule which is perfect for our merge and review tooling :). It was raised from 80 few years back and probably raises again to 120 as everybody has all their monitors 1920x1080 now. The idea is everybody should see the entire line in one go without wrapping enabled.

A second reason is that it prevents nesting as a side effect. You are forced to make methods and don't go into nested if/for. Much easier to check for our (custom) linter than verifying for/if nested loop depth.

Oh, Turning on word wrap is evil...