It seems every good option is paid, and all others are either discontinued (trelby, fountain) or filled with commercial and AI tools (Story Architect)
This is weird and discouraging, coming from the novel world where you could use a plain markdown editor and export it to epub/pdf/whatever you need. Anyone know of something better for screenwriting?
I think you misunderstood their statement. They have used simple markdown editors before which are basic but had the export function. Now they are looking for something more advanced which are in line with what the industry is using.