Disagree.

1. If it is supported _somewhere_, it should be supported _everywhere_. (Or _nowhere_ but I think no one is going to convert all existing posts.) So I would rather ask for adding the support to “SE editor” (or the “SE formatting bar” if I understand the term correctly).

2. There is a hint frame _How to Format_ on the right side of the editing field, at least in the desktop view. It currently advises to use the syntax:

        _italic_ or **bold**

3. I intuitively used underscore when writing first part of this answer. It is directly available on my keyboard ([Czech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTZ#/media/File:Keyboard_layout_Czech.svg)) while I’d have to use <kbd>Alt Gr</kbd> or similar extensions for asterisk. Moreover, these extensions vary across the platforms I use.

4. Finally, this is a wrong place to discuss it. _Ask Ubuntu_ is not special among other SE sites in this way, so this topic should go to https://meta.stackexchange.com/.