Markdown is not a typesetting engine. It is a markup language. What pandoc does is convert the markdown syntax into LaTeX syntax and then run a TeX engine to produce the desired PDF.
If we're going to go that route, neither is LaTeX a typesetting engine; it is a macro package built on the typesetting engine of TeX.
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If we're going to go that route, neither is LaTeX a typesetting engine; it is a macro package built on the typesetting engine of TeX.
Latex maybe is a typesetting system: a core engine + other stuff.