D, Your rant is not entirely based on fact.
Those typography settings are carried with the message assuming the sender has the correct MIME settings and you have chosen to recieve it that way. (many Email programs have a setting "text" vs "html")
As for the ">". That is also a 'configurable' option. Although I admit the DEFAULT is to include them and after multiple forwarding they become quite unsightly.

"I am certain there is too much certainty in the world" -Michael Crichton