Most people learn LaTeX for one of two reasons:
- They need to type math.
- Their supervisor/journal editor/professor/etc. told them they had to use it.
The disconnect here is that most TeX enthusiasts use it for a different two reasons:
- Easily extendable and automatable (macros, packages, etc.).
- High output quality.
Everything in your list is an obvious benefit for an enthusiast, but let's look at it from the perspective of a TeX novice:
- ConTeXt can generate epub, pdf, XHTML and xml while LaTeX can only generate pdf and dvi.
What is XHMTL and EPUB? I'm able to print and email a PDF and that's what the journal/my professor asks for.
- ConTeXt provides third-party font support while pdflatex doesn't.
- What's a font?
- I just do
\usepackage{tgtermes}
fontspec
- ConTeXt provides more control over document formatting and style.
This is all too confusing, why can't I use the document class from my publisher/university?
- ConTeXt supports MathMl natively.
What is MathML?
- ConTeXt is monolithic and mostly you don't need packages and modules in ConTeXt.
What's a package? I just this template I copied from the internet/the document class from my publisher/university.
- ConTeXt error messages are easier to understand (at least in my opinion).
I really can't agree with you here. In my experience, ConTeXt has way worse error messages. The error experience is much better though since the compiler points to the exact line that was broken and stops on the first error.
- ConTeXt has better MetaPost integration.
What is MetaPost?
- ConTeXt has native SVG support.
If I need to include an SVG, I just take a picture with my phone, email it to myself, and include that in the document.
- ConTeXt can be used to work with spreadsheets.
Cool feature, but too complicated for me to figure out.
- ConTeXt is unified. It has only one implementation and you don't need to think about comparability with other implementations.
So is LaTeX: Overleaf is the only thing that exists.
Another key point is inertia. LaTeX has been around since 1983, but ConTeXt has only been public until 1996, but didn't really get any users until 2000. LaTeX had a 20 year head-start here, so anyone learning a TeX format in that time would have probably learned LaTeX. Then anyone learning TeX after that would end up learning it from someone who only knew LaTeX, and the cycle repeats.
Documentation is also important. You can Google or look on TeX.se for any LaTeX questions/problems, but you don't really get many results for ConTeXt. Plus, there have always been tons of good LaTeX introductory manuals, but there hasn't been any introductory ConTeXt manual until quite recently (Not so short intro…). And even then, LaTeX has tons of material for the intermediate user, but there's almost nothing for ConTeXt.
ConTeXt has the best manuals of all the formats for an advanced user (CLD, Metafun, LuaMetaTeX, Low Level TeX, etc.). And the ConTeXt source is also really easy to read, unlike most of the LaTeX kernel and packages. But neither of these are helpful with attracting new users.
For context (ha!), I really like ConTeXt. I use it for nearly all of my documents, I have 100+ posts on the ConTeXt mailing list, I've published a package for it (with a manual written with ConTeXt), I've helped with the integration of LMTX into TeX Live, etc.
I'm also an undergraduate student, so I see a lot of new users to TeX. Often I'm the first one to teach someone TeX. Whenever I'm working with someone else, I always use LaTeX. I feel a little weird simultaneously complaining that ConTeXt has no users and teaching new users LaTeX, but it would feel irresponsible for me to teach them ConTeXt due to the lack of documentation and users.
memoir/articleis good enough for my needs so far