Thanks for the input, @bluebirch!
I agree we should try to make things as consistent as possible. Our specific flavor of Markdown is meant to strike a balance between plain text and rich formatting via basic Markdown syntax, which is why things are this way (respecting whitespace and literal newlines, etc.). Overall, we want to be as intuitive as possible for the average user, and be flexible enough for more creative writing, like poetry.
We’re thinking about how we might support a Markdown standard in addition to our current middle-of-the-road support now. This forum thread would be a great place for everyone to weigh in on what they’d like to see most.