Collections and proto builders which are created and mutated but never used may be a sign of a bug, for example:

  MyProto.Builder builder = MyProto.newBuilder();
  if (field != null) {
    MyProto.NestedField.Builder nestedBuilder = MyProto.NestedField.newBuilder();
    nestedBuilder.setValue(field);
    // Oops--forgot to do anything with nestedBuilder.
  }
  return builder.build();

Likewise, converting a proto to a builder and modifying it is a no-op unless something is done with the return value:

  void setFoo(MyProto proto, String foo) {
    proto.toBuilder().setFoo(foo).build();
  }

As protos are immutable, either the return value must be used:

  @CheckReturnValue
  MyProto withFoo(MyProto proto, String foo) {
    return proto.toBuilder().setFoo(foo).build();
  }

or the Builder modified in place:

  void setFoo(MyProto.Builder protoBuilder, String foo) {
    protoBuilder.setFoo(foo);
  }