> I can't be the only one who believes this...writing in a 2 panel markdown+preview side-by-side view is just horrible and backwards.

It's called markup and a matter of efficiency. With richtext I need to mark the Text and click some button/menu-item OR learn a gazillion shortcuts for every little syntax-function. With Markup I use the same keys that I use for writting text, because the syntax is internal to the text, not some hidden external thing.

Of course it's possible to make a hybrid, something that displays richtext instantly while still working with syntax. But this is hard and cumbersome. Nonthless, Obsidian has it on their list as a longterm-goal, so maybe in some years we will see it.