From context, I don't think "change tracking" here is being used as a general category of programmers' revision control systems. When you're working with editors at publishing companies or magazines, you need document revision tracking. Embedded comments, being able to see changes the editor made and being able to accept, reject, or modify them. And your program needs to be able to do this in a way that makes round-tripping the document between you and the editor absolutely bullet-proof. If the editor is using Word (and they are), that means you either need Word yourself, or you need something that's so good at doing that round-tripping with Word that the editor doesn't notice you're using something else.
And, speaking as someone who really doesn't like using Word and has searched for various solutions, this turns out to be really hard. I haven't looked at LibreOffice in the last two or three years, I confess, so it may have solved this by now -- but neither it nor OpenOffice could consistently manage this. There are other word processors that don't even try. I eventually settled on using Apple Pages, which so far seems to manage this well enough that no editor has called me on it.
I can see people raising their hands to object to my assertion that the editor is using Word, because they submitted to a mathematical or engineering journal that accepts submissions in LaTeX. And, sure, there are meaningful exceptions out there, but I can assure you that if you peruse the submission requirements for virtually any non-technical publisher, they are going to either mention Word or just expect Word because it's the industry standard for manuscripts. It doesn't matter how much better any other system is -- Penguin Random House ain't gonna change their workflow to accommodate you.
And, speaking as someone who really doesn't like using Word and has searched for various solutions, this turns out to be really hard. I haven't looked at LibreOffice in the last two or three years, I confess, so it may have solved this by now -- but neither it nor OpenOffice could consistently manage this. There are other word processors that don't even try. I eventually settled on using Apple Pages, which so far seems to manage this well enough that no editor has called me on it.
I can see people raising their hands to object to my assertion that the editor is using Word, because they submitted to a mathematical or engineering journal that accepts submissions in LaTeX. And, sure, there are meaningful exceptions out there, but I can assure you that if you peruse the submission requirements for virtually any non-technical publisher, they are going to either mention Word or just expect Word because it's the industry standard for manuscripts. It doesn't matter how much better any other system is -- Penguin Random House ain't gonna change their workflow to accommodate you.