The original Markdown was actually a very nice readable language: https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/index.text
It didn't have ugly complications like inline links because it was trying to be a readable plaintext language.
But, as often happens, it was coopted by the first popular app to use it, maybe GitHub or StackOverflow, and it became the bloated unreadable garbage it is today.
I was trying the long-form articles on Nostr recently and noticed a few differences between clients. This made me remember something, but I don't remember the source. That Markdown is not exactly standardised.
This also brought org-mode (from Emacs) and orgdown to mind as possible alternatives, and also Gemtext. Gemtext is probably too restricted for that.
