In the late 70's and early 80's there were really high end CRT word processors from companies like Xerox, Wang and Burroughs. I recall managers debating buying these versus general purpose computers.
At the time, that's mostly what you did with general purpose computers...WordStar or similar. Spreadsheets hadn't really taken off yet.
I had a summer job around 1990 as a word processor using a Wang and a dictaphone. While this was definitely at the end of the era of the dedicated word processor, it was an interesting environment to be in. I was one of two dedicated word processors at the company.
It was quite a different world back then, because I would type up a lot of memos that would get physically posted on bulletin boards in public areas, and cc: (carbon copies), while no longer using carbon paper, meant that you were making physical cc's that were being distributed manually.
I remember being very productive with WordStar, with muscle memory better than what I have now with vim. I could type like the wind, make corrections, reformat, and print in a sort of "out of body" way where my thoughts just flowed.
I haven't really experienced that since. Maybe the single tasking environment kept me more focused.
Well, back in those days, styling choices could be incredibly limited (depending on whether you were using a green screen vs gui), especially if the word processor's output was limited to a daisy wheel printer.
I think the vast number of styling and formatting options these days can easily distract writers from... writing, which is probably why Markdown and focused writing tools have become so popular.
At the time, that's mostly what you did with general purpose computers...WordStar or similar. Spreadsheets hadn't really taken off yet.
Edit: Check Google for the Xerox 860. It was the Cadillac at the time. https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=488