When I enter

<!-- language-all: lang-bash -->

    if :; then echo "quoted"; fi

in a post on main, the output looks like this:

Here on meta, the very same code gets no syntax highlighting at all:

if :; then echo "quoted"; fi

I already tried every possible combination from language: bash to said language-all: lang-bash without any avail. As the last paragraphs in this post by Eliah Kagan shows, I’m not the only one who is bothered by this – I think we all agree syntax highlighting is very useful.

Could you shed some light on whether that’s actually a bug or rather status-bydesign?
If it’s the latter:

• What are the precise reasons this decision was made?
• Can we have a discussion on that?

When is syntax highlighting needed in meta? The only case I can think of is a question asking about syntax highlighting. Is that really a common enough issue to need it?

There are a number of scripts and code snippets posted here on meta, examples in addition to the above linked ones include:

• code copied from main for analysis: https://meta.askubuntu.com/a/15292/507051
  that’s a case where syntax highlighting would be especially useful
• SEDE SQL scripts: https://meta.askubuntu.com/a/13806/507051
• SVG code: https://meta.askubuntu.com/a/2631/507051 and https://meta.askubuntu.com/a/2640/507051
• scripts requested by OP: https://meta.askubuntu.com/a/13905/507051, https://meta.askubuntu.com/a/483/507051 and https://meta.askubuntu.com/a/294/507051

Is there any good reason not to have syntax highlighting available?