[cdchn]

At that point, why aren't you just writing HTML?

[dannyobrien]

Markdown is really just a way of making the average, text, bit of HTML a little bit easier to read and write. Even when you're including some HTML in it, it still has that advantage over raw HTML.

[fragmede]

<p>because, it is <i>really</i> awkward</p>

[cdchn]

All the hoops you have to jump through with Markdown seem more awkward to me than a few extra characters.