Rich text emails are great. So are variable-width fonts.
I think this is partly an over-reaction to some senders that go way overboard with bright colours a hundred images and complex layout that doesn't render right on your screen size. But just because a capability can be used poorly doesn't mean that it can't be used well.
I can also understand that some people choose to prefer the text version of messages because it is so common to "abuse" HTML. And for those people I even include a text fallback in case their client doesn't have the ability to do that.
Typing words to strangers online, worked just as well using IRC in 1999 as it does today. However my issue with Discord isn't the rich text, it's that Discord is a proprietary, centralised, CIA honeypot and a garbage company. Their Electron client is the least of their sins.
>Rich text emails are great.
They can be. They usually aren't. Yesterday I got a marketing email from an electricity provider. The unsubscribe link was 1302 characters of obfuscated Sendgrid bullshit. And it was full of tracking images and all links had click tracking. I wonder how this crap is GDPR compliant, because I'm fairly sure I never consented to any of this.
Rich text emails as a format and as a feature are great. If you don’t like the content of emails that doesn’t change the issue at all. In the alternative you are proposing, the unsubscribe link isn’t clickable at all.
(I also dislike Discord for many of the same reasons, but it won because it is better for users, because it has more features. Your complaints about it, which I share, are irrelevant to this discussion.)
Great solution! I wish I'd thought of that.