There is some sort of conflict visible between the LaTeX community and the MS-Word ecosystem. LaTeX claims, that it is superior over all the other other word processors and that there is a need to install a 20 GB texlive distribution only to create a simple pdf file. In contrast, the MS-Word community believes that MS Word is easier to use and that it encourages collaborative editing.
It is obvious that this conflict can't be solved within the near future but perhaps there is a third option available. From a technical point it is possible to export from one format into another. A Lyx created document can be stored into the .docx format and submitted to anybody without indoctrinating to use Lyx and LaTeX as well.
The same workflow is possible by creating the document in markdown. Converting markdown into .docx is also possible in an automated way. There is no need that all the users are preferring the same software tool with the same operating system but it is simply a personal choice how to create a text.
Similar to the HTML file format, the .docx format is some sort of universal standard which is understood by everybody. On the other hand there is no need to prefer this format for creating new documents but there are many reasons which are speaking against MS Word as a typesetting software.
According to the Lyx dialog window, there are endless amount of export formats like DVI, HTML, odf, plain text and the mentioned .docx format. The ability to export a document is important to ensure that different users groups can stay within their self created space. user1 is using Lyx, user2 prefers Word, user3 is using Libreoffice and so on. There is no reason why the world needs a single word processing software which is accepted by all. Even LaTeX is not the best tool. There are endless amount of reasons which are speaking against the software. The only thing what can be accepted as the smallest standard is the ability to convert back and forth between different systems. It makes sense if software A can store a file in the format of software B.
This understanding has much in common with natural language. Of course, there is the English language available. But at the same time, many reasons are speaking against English. Instead of encouraging people to learn English, the better idea is to provide a translator which converts from Language A into language B.
The prediction is, that in the future we will see more document formats but not less. What the LaTeX community won't do is to switch to the MS Word ecosystem. What the world really needs are better export filters which allows to use all the programs at the same time.
The best example why it makes no sense to decide between MS-Word vs LateX is the existence of the Scrivener software. Scrivener is an outliner which is used in addition to a word processor. Similar to MS-Word it is working with the WYSIWYG paradigm and demonstrates that even within the MS Word community there is no unity available for a certain software to write a document. The same situation is there within the LaTeX community. There is not the single user group which is working with the same software, but there are a dozens of frontends and macro packages available which are incompatible to each other. The only option to establish a single ecosystem which is accepted by all is to program converters which makes it easy to transfer data between incompatible systems.
