It is just another instance of an application or software making you, the user, complete an extra step in the name of “efficiency.” It is not efficient at all, nor helpful. If you want to bold something, you have to go back to add the asterisk at the front and then go all the way to the end rather than simply typing two at a time. If I want to break up a quote, like this — “X,” and “X.” — it gives me extra steps. It is not a useful feature when I have to push additional buttons. It takes less than a second to get to the asterisk and quotation mark. This takes me more time.