It annoys me that Latex is compared to Word, when they are bit different systems. Word is a word processor, and Latex is typesetting system. Much fairer comparison would be against Quark or InDesign, which are designed for typesetting.
You are correct, of course, but Latex and Word are the two main tools to write essays and such. In other words while they may be different systems, they are used in place of each other.
I've never seen someone editing an essay in InDesign (though I am sure there are such people).
One problem is that Quark and InDesign are expensive, bloated pieces of software whereas LaTeX and Word are free and easy to obtain (okay, Word isn't free, but it's ubiquitous).
