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@deleted
It’s not received wisdom - it has a cast iron logic. If you have the jersey it is for one of two reasons. The first is that you have a serious GC contender on your team, whose interest is to stop excessive time gaps. Races have been won that way. Off the top of my head, Walkowiak and Pereiro both won the TDF through stage breaks that weren’t kept in check. You could leave it to other GC teams to chase, but the leader always has most to lose.
The second reason you may have the jersey is because you have a sprinter or a tt specialist who has acquired it early in the race. In which case, riding on the front all day is going to give your sponsors bang for buck, and you will want to keep your jersey for as long as possible.