Outside of HN, people that actually avoid giving Google any data are almost nonexistent. People that use Markdown definitely aren't. There's a huge number of pragmatic developers that use Markdown and Google.

Seems like people can't fathom that "developers" in general are an insignificant demographic. Google Drive is used by a billion or more (including most Android users).

Developers are a handful of millions. Developers that use markdown outside of where they're forced to and actively want Google Drive to support it are even fewer.