I do both as well even in posts I wind up using raw html to format easily. can you escape the tags I always write them <img'>image</img'> when I try to help someone else but totally forgot if I could backslash them out in markdown. I'll look into it if you arent sure.
And yes no problem. I think it looks cleaner when scrolling, but I understand and sometimes wish the copy/paste drag and drop like facebook allows.
I prefer the formatted links though, and will try to remember. I don't know a lot of the cool markdown though I'll pick it up. Mostly italics bold and italicized bold which I probably over use the last. I try to do things like u and /u for underline and i and /i and b and /b and it doesn't work. So the mix of some HTML works and some does not, is still something I'm learning. Ordered and Unordered lists still work well. It's also been awhile since I messed with HTML much. Most of my code has been C# lately for game development, not web design. :) See steemit is making me dust off old skills, and teaching me some new ones. Thanks for your input, always appreciated.
EDIT: As for escaping tags... I keep looking for a codeblock or something like that but haven't really been able to pull that off yet.
EDIT 2: My most recent blog post I had formatted links and lists at the bottom... I'm moving up in the world. :P