I was a computer labs staffer in the early 90s, and for a lot of students our labs were their first exposure to word processors, and man, I hated supporting WordPerfect for DOS. Students couldn't figure out how to apply formatting correctly. Trying to change something's format, they would would reveal codes and delete half of a formatting code pair. I spent so much time explaining why half their paper was now in italics or bold.

WYSIWYG works so much better for most people.