Early returns makes the code more linear, reduces conditional/indent depth, and in some cases makes the code faster. In short, it often makes code simpler. The “no early returns” is a soft version of “no gotos”. There are cases where it is not possible to produce good code while following those heuristics. A software engineer should strive to produce the best possible code, not rigidly follow heuristics even when they don’t make sense.

There is an element of taste. Don’t create random early returns if it doesn’t improve the code. But there are many, many cases where it makes the code much more readable and maintainable.