Yeah I generally like Dr. Drang’s writing but the formatting buttons seemed like a really odd complaint to me too.

It’s so useful to have ultra-common stuff right at hand. I use keyboard shortcuts for some but don’t know them for others. I agree it’s a godsend for inexperienced users.

One of my top complaints about the ribbon or the sidebar stuff in pages is how hard it is to find that stuff.

And sure MacWrite didn’t show it, but it was on a 512x342 pixel screen. Adding a toolbar would take away very very precious vertical space. We can afford it now, the trade-off is different.

The article is about his personal preference, so it may not fit him well. But as a general criticism it seems very odd.