Exactly. The flag code in particular is a piece of weird fetishistic civic religion, and the principles supposedly underlying it are more honored in the breach than the observance. Maybe if you're actively employed by the US Government you should follow it, but otherwise it's just a boogeyman bit of thoughtless orthopraxy.
Not really a harmless one, it is a typical outgrowth of the American hypernationalism and an utterly jingoist tradition in the sense that it glorifies the military that really doesn't deserve any glorification anymore.