Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "should" is in the spec's description of how to interpret "off": "When an element's autofill field name is 'off', the user agent should not remember the control's data, and should not offer past values to the user."
So then the crux of the conflict: In 4.10.18.7.1... "The "off" keyword indicates either that the control's input data is particularly sensitive (for example the activation code for a nuclear weapon); or that it is a value that will never be reused (for example a one-time-key for a bank login) and the user will therefore have to explicitly enter the data each time, instead of being able to rely on the UA to prefill th…
Chrome is claiming that enough developers have marked fields as autocomplete=off in user-hostile ways that it shouldn't be respected, while many people here are making the case that conflicts with site-provided autocomplete and other issues push the other direction. That's how to have this discussion, not by pretending this SHOULD is a MUST.
(I don't work on Chrome and don't know any Google-internal anything about this)