I try my best to break people of that awful habit. I also find that I'm usually happy enough dealing only with people who can manage to open a pdf (or any other non-proprietary format).
Yes. I hate receiving documents in .docx or any other proprietary format, especially if I have not agreed to that format prior to receiving them. I like plain text if at all possible. I'll happily receive PDFs because I can view them under Linux/BSD, but others piss me off. People THINK MS Word is the de facto business standard. It isn't. Text and PDF are the standards. Never had issues with either.
I had a friend tell me my CV should be in PDF and locked down to prevent recruiters and others from changing it to something other than the original. I know recruiters are fond of changing things up without informing you.
You can "print" the text file to a pdf for your CV and get the best of both worlds. My department only allows pdf uploads for CVs, so that's my approach.