The issue is not so much dodgy Markdown parsing as such, but the combination of WYSIWYG-ish editing and Markdown parsing. So you type <asterisk>blah<asterisk> and the next time you press space the asterisks go away and “blah” is italicized. This is a slightly strange experience, and makes any bugs there are more annoying, and some people really really hate it.
(The most frustrating experiences I’ve had with it are actually with the LaTeX integration, which is a lovely thing to have but also occasionally infuriating.)
The issue is not so much dodgy Markdown parsing as such, but the combination of WYSIWYG-ish editing and Markdown parsing. So you type <asterisk>blah<asterisk> and the next time you press space the asterisks go away and “blah” is italicized. This is a slightly strange experience, and makes any bugs there are more annoying, and some people really really hate it.
(The most frustrating experiences I’ve had with it are actually with the LaTeX integration, which is a lovely thing to have but also occasionally infuriating.)