For my "thesis" like paper I had to write for university to finish my degree I learned LaTeX just to be able to keep my document under version control.

I didn't actually use very much of the vcs, but the added security gave me enough peace of mind to just not worry about everything.

Plus, not having to hit apple+s and upload/mail/transfer it manually to another computer everytime, to "backup", saves a lot of time as well.