In a reef, consistency doesn't do any good if it's consistently wrong. Ionic composition is dependent on salinity, which is 35ppt in natural seawater. This translates to 1.026 for our purposes, and it is at this point that we are able to maintain proper levels of Ca/alk, and other elements in our systems.
If someone needs to keep it lower to save money on salt, they picked the wrong hobby!!
If a natural reef is 1.026, why on earth would we arbitrarily decide to keep it different in our tanks?