• one asterisk
  Text inside first asterisk

• single dash
  Text inside

Aha I see. Very informative, thanks. But what are the presumable downsides of just having enters work as regular enters?
I think (?) I understand the appeal of all lines having the same full width, but this can still be accomplished by just not using any enters. Right?

And having the rendering work just like the text editor, of course only adds bonus points to the overall user experience.
What am I missing?