[ssivark]

To get an idea of what people might mean when they say that LaTeX looks more professional, see this: http://www.zinktypografie.nl/latex.php?lang=en

Oftentimes, I can (correctly) correlate "weird" looking documents with MS Word or Open/LibreOffice, eg: when reading papers. It's a surprising subconscious estimate and I don't know what throws my sensibilities off! Maybe I'm used to a higher standard of typesetting, or maybe it's just that I'm used to reading LaTeX output. I have heard the same from multiple academics who have spent some years looking at LaTeX output.

I wouldn't be surprised if people spent more time looking at beautiful documents, compared to uglier counterparts. Just like any other UX. As always, the document creator has to decide whether it's worth the extra effort.

[chronial]

Word 2010 supports ligatures, old-style and lining numbers, kerning and rare and historical letters and ligatures:

http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/435x597x...