I wish I could upvote this a thousand times and then some.
Already in the 80's Jeff Bezos refused to use latex due to its absurd difficulty to use. I can't believe it's been 40 years and there still isn't a better tool to write papers with.
It took me less than an hour to create a Google Docs template that looks roughly as good as a standard Latex document. The reason Latex looks beautiful is due to a set of wisely chosen defaults, nothing more.
Yet the focus of Google Docs clearly isn't scientific papers. I don't imagine it would take more than a few passionate employees at Google to expand Docs to a powerhouse of scientific writing.
Pictures of my template can be found below:
(and a blogpost about my Latex induced misery) http://mathiasbonde.com/?p=72