I got into LaTeX (not plain TeX) many years before I even wrote my first line of "normal" code (MATLAB). A couple more years passed before I really got into pro

I got into LaTeX (not plain TeX) many years before I even wrote my first line of "normal" code (MATLAB). A couple more years passed before I really got into proper software engineering. LaTeX being understood as a drop-in Word replacement is precisely part of the problem. It is just too arcane and different. If, like me back in the day, you approached LaTeX as an "alternate word processor" and from there delved into its backend/plain TeX, you are in for a bad time. Understanding it the other way around (some TeX, general ideas and patterns, then the rest [macros etc.] just falls into place) is a much healthier, holistic and sustainable approach that just makes sense. But in our case here, that is infeasible. It would require young engineers to learn a completely alien skill and cease being productive for many months. I reckon CS students/grads have the edge here, given their background and different approach.