[dfc]

You will be surprised to learn that pandoc uses latex for generating the PDF. It's barely hidden:

https://www.pandoc.org/demo/example33/2.4-creating-a-pdf.htm...

[sixtyj]

I know it ;) But we are talking about how to use something universal. I like pandoc as it is easy to use and… boring.

[dfc]

Your original comment before editing complained about using pdflatex as if it was not part of the pandoc toolchain. It was not about pandoc being universal.