I think the difference is probably that markdown is a pretty transparent and versatile way to format things, while still being simpler than many other markup/fo

I think the difference is probably that markdown is a pretty transparent and versatile way to format things, while still being simpler than many other markup/formatting languages. With Word, you might insert an image or try to add bullets to something and end up with your whole document looking completely different, whereas, with markdown, you know that if you put in a ">" for a quote, all that's going to change is that one spot.