I think the point is that the same document can compile without errors for one document class (style file), while being erroneous for another. So switching styl

I think the point is that the same document can compile without errors for one document class (style file), while being erroneous for another. So switching styles is not simply a matter of changing the \documentclass at the top, contrary to what one might expect. I've had mixed luck with switching styles: when the styles are very similar things tend to work better…. Yeah my problem with LaTeX in contrast to plain TeX is that it's too hard to understand what's going on, and one gets all those package conflicts… I agree with you about the cross-references and bibliographies being the main benefit of LaTeX; I imagine one can get by with a more lightweight macro package like eplain or opmac, though I haven't tried them much. Ideally IMO one would do these things separately (and generate TeX files that have the cross references simply hard-coded) and not via the macro system, but haven't tried that much either.