How am I supposed to know? I am sure there are excellent works from the STEM field written in word. But someone using latex has to at least some understanding of IT which is a good thing. Latex gives just a good first impression.

Based on former fellow students, I knew many would just stick to what they are fed and never get the idea to acquire knowledge on their own. And Latex could be just one of the things that shows curiosity and independent knowledge acquisition.