This is pretty neat, my only real gripe (and I know it is inherited from pod) is that the formatting tags can make it a bit difficult to read compared to plain Markdown, especially in the middle of text.
For example the line in the online editor:
This I<is> a B<text>
I find a little difficult to read at a glance.
The list items are also a bit visually "noisy" with every item needing its own "=itemX".
Is the plan to stick to the existing pod style rigidly or is there any potential flexibility for the syntax in the future?