Markdown is popular in the developer niche but it's actually not that nice for end users at all. Too geeky, too difficult to manage with (in most implementations) 2 different panes etc.

It also lacks most of the capabilities people would expect from an office product now, like accurate placement of text, font selection etc.

I don't see how it is an alternative for something like MS Word at all.

Markdown is great for simple notes, otherwise it is wacky format for anything more complex.