It's a critique, impassioned and curt albeit; and here's the most powerful metaphor you'll hear in regard to the topic of non-standardized formats.
Non-standardized formats/languages are the jive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_jive_talk) of the development world. It sets you apart from the general population (of programmers) when you use it. It primarily effects obfuscated communication to a smaller group. The specific form of jive will fall out of fashion a few years after you learn it. There is very little value in committing it into your brain other than for 'funsies'.
(In regard to Markdown specifically: there are tons of WYSIWYG HTML editors out there. Use those and copy/paste the HTML text. It requires no learning at all. Markdown was pre-emptively made useless over a decade ago.)
Non-standardized formats/languages are the jive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_jive_talk) of the development world. It sets you apart from the general population (of programmers) when you use it. It primarily effects obfuscated communication to a smaller group. The specific form of jive will fall out of fashion a few years after you learn it. There is very little value in committing it into your brain other than for 'funsies'.
(In regard to Markdown specifically: there are tons of WYSIWYG HTML editors out there. Use those and copy/paste the HTML text. It requires no learning at all. Markdown was pre-emptively made useless over a decade ago.)