i always tend to say ... "the problem does not change", so, if figuring out some clever tricks to get something done, then using id or tex makes no difference: one has to figure out the best way There are a (big) difference: a (my) solution in context costs 100€, a solutions with IDCS2 cost 10€ , because there are more IDCS2 programmers than TeX programmers.
concerning id ... Does IDCS2 offers a better ways to break a paragraph into lines ? pdfetex has space between words, and hz; it does not consider space between letters of a word IDCS2 has 'buttons' (my employer ask me yesterday 'Can you put buttons on context?'' maybe exa is a way to 'put buttons' on context)
(occassionally we hear stories of failed tryout with 3b2, id, quark, etc while tex base solutions did the job (end kept doing it) for years already; i think that one has to decide for each situation anew) Another story: I'm using context from 2002 in a production env. for automatic pricelist and labels. Every job with 'from XML/TXT to PDF' that I have uses context. (also: dreams come true) Why ? Because it's a quick way for us to make a pdf from xml/txt ready for digital printing.
tex will always be a niche product Why ?
But none say a word about Elements of Typographic Style