Yeah, that was basically my reaction as well. They tweaked Markdown a bit, changed a few things around, but it's pretty much identical to Markdown. I don't really see any big wins here. This XKCD seems somewhat appropriate: http://xkcd.com/927/
You should be happy that it is not named Yet Another Markdown Language. And I don't think there will be a standard Markdown in front of the people who shout out HOLY MARKDOWN until John Gruber release an update.
