I've commonly heard it said (and I agree, although I used to make the mistake myself in the past) that over-reliance on visual emphasis is a sign of bad writing

I've commonly heard it said (and I agree, although I used to make the mistake myself in the past) that over-reliance on visual emphasis is a sign of bad writing. Good writers use words, phrases, sentences, grammar and other linguistic constructs for emphasis so don't need to rely on visual emphasis. This also makes it much more impactful when you do use visual emphasis because its much clearer that its important.