You may not be aware that Ctrl-I toggles the mode of new text, not just selected text. I think that poster was saying this:
If you're writing a new sentence in MSWord, you type "Emphasize words <Ctrl-I>like this<Ctrl-I>."
If you write a new sentence in Markdown, you type "Emphasize words *like this*."
The keys are neighbors even, at least in a US keyboard layout, so there is not a reason most US users would say it's "faster" to type * than Ctrl-I. (And if other layout users disagree, okay, but I don't think that was in the scope of the original point.)
I think in practice, people write "Emphasize words like this.", then <left> *, then <C-left><C-left> *. At least I myself usually add markup immediately after writing the words to be marked up.
The problem with Word-like editor styling is exactly that the boundaries are invisible, and the style is applied destructively to everything within highlighted range, instead of non-destructively by the range itself. What I mean is, if in the example above, I want to change the emphasis to only italicize "this", I can kill the first * and place it a word later. In Word-style editing, I'll have to highlight the whole "like " sequence and un-italicize it, hoping I didn't miss a space or a dot that invisibly retains the italics and then screw up editing for you down the line.
> I think in practice, people write "Emphasize words like this.", then <left> , then <C-left><C-left> . At least I myself usually add markup immediately after writing the words to be marked up.
Is this very different from "<left> <Ctrl+Shift+left> <Ctrl+Shift+Left> <Ctrl+I>"?
I do not know what exact keystrokes people use. When I am writing a lot of text, I eventually converge into writing like I described. Because it is faster and I know what I want.
What I also know is that when out company switched to visual editor only, people stopped using these. They stopped writing long texts - and those were those the most valuable.
Not sure whether most people do that? I nearly always press * or Ctrl-I before the italicized text I’ll type, and see that often among other people in the office.
I'm guessing it depends whether you type at approximately the speed of thought or not; in my case, I'm often halw-way through a passage before I decide I want it italicized.
If you're writing a new sentence in MSWord, you type "Emphasize words <Ctrl-I>like this<Ctrl-I>."
If you write a new sentence in Markdown, you type "Emphasize words *like this*."
The keys are neighbors even, at least in a US keyboard layout, so there is not a reason most US users would say it's "faster" to type * than Ctrl-I. (And if other layout users disagree, okay, but I don't think that was in the scope of the original point.)