There are some bits of typical markdown syntax that I really don't like. Like pasting code requires you to add 4 spaces to the start of every line and an extra linefeed between each line. That's a lot of work and every time I do it I say "How is this better than <pre></pre>?"

I've yet to see what I'd really like: preformatted text being surrounded by markers that make it easy to paste in, like so:

    Some regular text

    vvvvv

    Preformatted text

    ^^^^^

It would be cool if the extension could do that and then do all of that obnoxious formatting for me. Or heck, it could be a full up WYSIWYG editor.

The most common way to do this is with triple backticks:

    Some regular text

    ```
    Preformatted text
    ```

While this isn't in the original spec (https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#precode) it's supported by GitHub, Stack Overflow, and most other places I find myself using a markdown flavor.

This syntax even made its way into CommonMark (https://spec.commonmark.org/0.29/#fenced-code-blocks)

> ...every time I do it I say "How is this better than <pre></pre>?"...

From Gruber’s Markdown spec:

> Readability, however, is emphasized above all else.