Do you really think creating a 300-page dissertation with over 1,000 footnotes and several cross-references between them is a significant percentage of what people use word for? I think "obscure" is reasonable. Most people don't even use styles in my experience.
Well, they are features. I understand that most people don't use half the features of modern word processors. But then, do they really need a powerful word processor?
I know people that started using styles and cross-references once they knew Word had this feature. The redesign of Office 2007 helped a lot of people to discover such features, and start using them. Lots of people use Word for creating simple letters or 5-page documents and, in these cases, it is unnecessary to use those features.
I understand that Apple designed Pages as a dumbed-down word processor, for those people who barely know how to type a text to be dazzled with beautiful and easy-to-create documents. That's Apple's approach. Apple could also have inserted advanced features on it, and it could have made them easy to use. But it chose not to. Apple preferred to not spend money in development of Pages. It's easier to develop a simple word processor which lacks features, and call those features "bloat". It's easy for someone who doesn't even know what the features are for to call them "bloat". But then ask someone who regularly use those features if they are "bloat". Of course not. The difficult part - to create a full-featured, yet easy to use, word processor - well, that part Apple skipped.
But then I'm frustrated. I've bought a computer that costed me more than double a standard Windows computer. Only to discover that the software it runs is dumbed-down and that, if I want to have all the features, I'll have to run Windows. I know it's Apple's approach, and I know most people don't even give a damn about it. But I'm disappointed at Apple.
Because it makes perfect sense for Apple to let Microsoft dictate their development?
Compatibility has nothing to do with development. Apple could have invested some money in it, because Office files are very popular, and it would have been useful for Mac users to open Office files seamlessly.
Now, what development are you talking about? Pages hasn't been updated in four years.
Send the client a PDF. Which usually makes more sense anyway.
It's not always possible. When you work in a corporate environment, and you have to share documents with other people in your firm, and with professionals from other firms, it's really hard to not be fully compatible with Microsoft Office. And the clients usually want fully compatible Microsoft Office files.
Apple Pages is a $20 piece of software aimed at teenage students willing to do their homework. It's not serious stuff. It's not meant to produce real work, to be fully compatible with anything, or to have features that save time. It's just for fun. That's my impression on it.
