But the meaning of "familiar" syntax is very subjective. In my case the markdown looks strange, like a shell comment. Does it render or is it just a comment? Does a section number appear? At least with LaTeX sectioning I know what will happen.

> But the meaning of "familiar" syntax is very subjective. In my case the markdown looks strange, like a shell comment. Does it render or is it just a comment? Does a section number appear? At least with LaTeX sectioning I know what will happen.

Fair enough. Similarly, the "familiar" GUI interaction paradigm that Outlook Web Access forces on me (to pick an example that's on my mind as I am struggling with it) is much less convenient and familiar to me than a text-based interface as I'd get with Pine. However, we get what is (thought to be) familiar and comfortable to the intended audience, and we might not be the intended audience for the software that we want to use.