Some regulars, even though they post a lot and have been around for a while, still don't use or won't bother with using HTML.
Just an example found here:

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/VOY/episode/108170.html

In HTML: Voyager

The latter version: you click on it, and hop, there you are, one quick click and that's it!

The former version: I counted no less than 9 operations to do on the keyboard to get to the same result.

This guide can help understand how it works.

Not long after the HZ became opertional, I tried it , made some mistakes, but very quickly got used to it and there was no way back.
Why can't all regulars do the same?
Sure, it's not and won't ever be as fast as simply typing or copy-pasting the URL , but it's a lot easier for the others and it enables some creativity for chosing a word.
And why not show a little more respect to the other readers?

But perhaps, the only arbitration is knowing how often links without HTML are checked compared to links in HTML.