I love org mode and use it for almost everything (note taking, agenda, to-do list, contacts, teaching materials, protocols, documentation, ...). The boost in productivity that it gives me is amazing and I do not expect to switch to another system in this life. However, I agree that org is not a great tool for writing serious documents intended for publication. First, the issue about collaboration that you mentioned. Just about 10% of my collaborators use Emacs, and even those people aren't serious users of org mode. But even when I'm writing alone, I really do need the power of LaTeX in the vast majority of cases. Org allows embedding LaTeX (behind the scenes LaTeX is a stepping stone on the path to PDF), but if I end up littering my org document with LaTeX macros anyway, I can just as well use straight LaTeX and org doesn't really buy me anything. It just adds another level of complexity to common authoring workflows. I also often use literate programming techniques in my articles, and Knitr (LaTeX' solution) is considerably more powerful and reliable than org's Babel system.