I exaggerated a bit
The only thing really consistent in most books is the no space between paragraphs, at least in germany. I don't remember any book having white space above every paragraph. Indenting on the other side is handled differently. And I don't mind that very much too. Only thing I think is strange is the margin above every paragraph thing.
Many books in german have even no indentation at all. Two points why I think I recognize formating more in eBooks: first because I am able to change that. That leads to actually looking at it rather than to just read. The second point is, that ebooks reflow. Where a print books is designed page by page, what a page looks on any ereader is different. The formating above without any indents for example would be impossible in an ebook, because there is no guarantee that the last line of a paragraph has white space at the end.
But I stand corrected at my initial comment, it was more wishfull thinking than reality