The author's argument that Microsoft Word in unavoidable because doc format is de facto standard in his problem domain seems bullshit to me. You can't substitute a document editor with document format like that. I mean, you can totally avoid using Microsoft Word for creating doc files by switching to latex/markdown/org/... with [pandoc][1] converter, for example, or use any kind of MSWord-like word processors, e.g. OpenOffice Writer(if this somehow change something). The author didn't mention any other problem with Word, except it's local ubiquity, which i don't find a problem at all. So, why hate so much?
You're right, it's bullshit. Apart from anything else, Word saves in a ton of formats. I use Word all the time but I very rarely use doc/docx. I use rtf instead.
[1]: http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/