Why do web designers and programmers hate WYSIWYG editors?
Using WYSIWYG editors is like using training wheels to ride a bicycle. They were fine when you got started and they prevented you from falling and breaking a limb. Yet eventually you outgrew them, you wanted to drive your bicycle to a whole new level. The more you pushed your cycling limits, the more of a burden the training wheels became. You could not do anything daring with training wheels on. So, eventually you had to take the training wheels off and I am sure you never looked back.
For WYSIWYG editors for Web development. They were fine when you just arrived from the MS. Word and Excel 'computing' world, they offered you a familiar interface where you could build web pages as if you were still using Word (and probably just a little more than that.) But using WYSIWYG editors comes with a price: they limit you to the functionality coded into the tool and if you want to go anywhere away from that functionality the editor becomes a burden. If you want to do anything daring, you gotta let go of the training wheels and learn to drive Web development for real. And just as when you took off the training wheels of your bicycle, once you have tried the freedom of coding by hand instead of using WYSIWYG editors, you probably won't look back.
The people who are pro in Web Development will not use WYSIWYG editors. At their level they are already a burden that limits their creativity and their choices. There is nothing inherently wrong with WYSIWYG editors. They fulfill a role in the Web Development ecosystem. But if you want to do great Web design, with optimal and elegant code, using the latest features, good browser compatibility, etc. It is probably already out of the scope of such tools.
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