If you write a plain text document and you format it following markdown principles, you get a simple rich text version of your document for free. Your headings will be headings, your bullet points will be bullet points, and your code blocks will be code blocks.

Now, you can also ‘game’ markdown, writing the minimum possible plaintext to ‘trick’ it into making a pretty document while leaving the plain text ugly.

But in general, the idea of markdown is to start from ‘imagine I have a bunch of plain text files I’ve been formatting consistently for years. How can I make them look nice as rich text?’