I hear you, and sympathize.
Using "<
>" and "<
>" operators will give teletype font but will result in an enclosing box, in which (contrary to native use of those operators) lengthy lines will wrap to the next line.
Using "<
>" and "<
>" operators will give teletype font and will not result in an enclosing box, but will unfortunately convert any html operators so that they are visible rather than acted upon, requiring many escape/re-entry sequences to get around.
Using unordered and ordered lists can unexpectedly insert or remove white-space, and make it difficult to combine this effect with other effects.
All of this is somewhat (!!) annoying to those who seek to finely craft their messages.
Yes, crafting is still possible, but how best to exercise this Art would take quite a bit of time and effort to convey, so is outside the scope of this reply.
I recommend letting go of micro-managing your messaging, and just settling for line breaks and paragraph breaks, with the odd bold / underline / italics (as I've
mostly done here). It promotes a lower stress level.
Thank you.