Your example of MS Word is interesting. Not only are these "playable" features distracting, they don't help with learning to write non-trivial texts either. I'd like to see them use a simple semantical text editor where they indicate the structure of the text, which then is automatically formatted. Formatting then is not a seemingly integral part of writing anymore, but a separate task.
More importantly, I think, is that a lot of educators and parents seem to value "having fun" as an important characteristic of education. I am doing research on innovative mathematics education in primary school, and, when asking teachers to evaluate the lessons or instructional materials, they always point out how much fun the children had (compared to the usual instruction). If I asked further and inquire about the actual learning of the students, most teachers aren't able to express anything beyond the superficial, either related to class management or to regurgitating parts of the curriculum.
The kids in my CS class use putty to access Ubuntu servers, then write up their coursework in markdown. The only way to view their formatted text is to look at the GitHub README.md files online.
As a result, there are very few distractions. They have putty and GitHub open on their screens, and nothing else.
FWIW, this is what a LaTeX editor might give you. You write paragraphs of text, with some tags to indicate the semantics of the text, and converting that into 'pretty' text on a page is (generally) a second step.
I was more thinking about something like LyX and hide the typesetting engine / markup language for a while. Although when children have experience with an editor like this, supporting them to learn something like HTML (of LaTeX) is probably a lot easier as they understand the concept of structural elements.
More importantly, I think, is that a lot of educators and parents seem to value "having fun" as an important characteristic of education. I am doing research on innovative mathematics education in primary school, and, when asking teachers to evaluate the lessons or instructional materials, they always point out how much fun the children had (compared to the usual instruction). If I asked further and inquire about the actual learning of the students, most teachers aren't able to express anything beyond the superficial, either related to class management or to regurgitating parts of the curriculum.