it's a filter. just not a filter for qualities I want to see in a potential employer, or, in potential co-workers. i want to see intelligence, flexibility, efficiency, substance, creativity, modernity, human-friendly systems and an emphasis on ROWE, not warm bodies in seats like clockwork, or conformity. Word? I mean, in a world where PDF and plain text exists? And non-MS/agnostic systems, and HTML? Seriously?
A computer scientist against clockwork and conformity?
All technology is about making stuff work like clockwork. That's like.. what it's all about. This applies to human processes just as much as machine ones.
Conformity is one way to create good clockwork machines.
Your reasons strike me as childish. Word is still the best word processor by far. Personally I respect people who use Word because it means they're willing to use the best software despite it being associated with Microsoft. Word for Mac is about a billion times more sophisticated than Pages.
You don't think that filtering out people who have issues with the HR organization processing resume's isn't a "Filter?"