more software bitching
LaTeX is that kind of thing like the Linux/Unix command-line; it is godawful and has no sense of design whatsoever, no accessibility, horrible tech-centrism and Anglocentrism, etc. etc. but also it's the singleton, the only fleshed out implementation of its entire category of software.
so because for example there's so many advantages of a CLI over a GUI but Linux is the only useable CLI there is, all of the problems of the Linux CLI are assumed to be problems with CLIs in general, and everyone who came to understand the benefits of a CLI has to put up with Linux bullshit to get to use one, and eventually grows used to it. and so the Linux bullshit perpetuates. at some point an entire defensive/self-flagellating culture develops where the more pointless unnecessary bullshit you put up with, the bigger hacker you are.
LaTeX works exactly the same way in the text editing/typesetting world; it can in fact be seen less as a "markup" and more as "telling the computer commands about how to set the text", just like the general CLI is telling the computer commands for the general case.