LaTeX has always been like that. Random packages have never worked together properly, and submitting the manuscript in the format the publisher requires has alw

LaTeX has always been like that. Random packages have never worked together properly, and submitting the manuscript in the format the publisher requires has always been a struggle. It's often easier to reinvent the wheel than to use a third-party package for some functionality. The way I learned it, the best practice of using LaTeX has always been based on whitelisting. When you create documents for yourself, you establish a list of packages that work well together and stick to it. And if you expect documents from others, you provide a document class and a list of supported packages. But despite all these shortcomings, LaTeX is widely supported. Both in the technical sense and in the social sense. Journals and similar entities not only accept but often except LaTeX documents.