Personally, I like groups with stricter rules, though I perfectly understand why someone wouldn't. I guess it depends what the rules are---I'm not really a fan of extremely strict character creation rules that end up with every character looking alike, but when it comes to rules that help with keeping the peace and sticking to the lore of the group---yeah, that's cool with me. If the rules are just unnecessary or rude to people for no reason... then I don't waste my time with it.
I've had a lot of experiences in the past where I'll think, "oh, no need to make this a rule, I feel like its just common sense not to do that" and... tada, someone does it immediately. Whenever I have to make rules for something, they can sometimes end up being a bit lengthy, but I feel its better to prevent problems before they start.