NB: This might be a 'framework' issue, as styles exist in all document types

I really, really, like the product.  But I am concerned that it is, in some
ways, hidebound by being too much like existing products, which means it is
shadowing the  mistakes as well as the good ideas of older products like
Wordstar, WordPerfect, Word, etc.

In particular, I am concerned (see late comment in issue 40885) about the
logical structure of documents.  Imagine a novel, or a report.  It consists of a
hierarchy:
Document 
  - Sections (Frontispiece, Introduction, TOC, chapters, appendicies, indexes)
    - Chapters contain paragraphs, illustrations, diagrams, figures
      - paragraphs contain sentences, inserts (foot & endnotes, asides)
        - sentences contain words, punctuation, separators
          - words contain characters, numbers, co-joiners

The style heirarchy we have consists of pages, paragraphs (which contain page
breaks!), characters.  You will notice that 'pages' do not appear above, not
'chapters' and 'sentences' in the list here..

Word Processing, as distinct from text editing, is a technique in which document
production is automated.  The use of styles is an abstraction which encapsulates
the attributes intended to perform that automation.  I am suggesting that the
abstraction we have could be radically improved by going back to the natural
structure of a document and reconsidering where and how the attributes are best
created and belong.

The current 'style' model is essentially flat, so that any particular bit of
text has a single set of paragraph attributes.  I am proposing a nesting
mechanism, so that italic or other-language sentences could live happily within
paragraphs, inheriting page margins but having thier own indents - for example.  

This is an expansion on the ideas of Issue 30503 and some of those in issue
40885.  I thought it would be useful to further abstract those ideas.  I suggest
that these thoughts could advance word processing radically and produce serious
product differentiation, and turn writer from a me-to product to one that leads
the pack.