I'm hoping they're dropping the idea of chat. Spending time on that really never made much sense me when their core product is so strong but badly needs some features to better align with modern tech trends such as improved plain text and markdown support.
Yes, 1000 times yes! I so wish I could author in Evernote using markdown. Getting any sort of rich text done in a note is extremely cumbersome in Evernote, lists for instance.
I will guiltily admit that Ctrl+Shift+U is hard coded into my finger DNA - I use Evernote for every meeting, every discussion we have, and quickly creating lists (or getting out of list mode) is actually one thing I like about evernote.
I mostly use Evernote on my iOS devices. While I do have a keyboard for my iPad, I am not sure that works there, but I'll give it a go. Ultimately, though, markdown support would be my ideal so that I don't have to learn a new set of key combinations. I already know emacs ;) Plus markdown is easier to use than a key combination like that (IMO of course).
Markdown support has been a common feature request for years, with many feature requests in their forums as well as entire blog posts from fairly prominent bloggers – just try googling "Evernote markdown support".
I've had the strong suspicion for a long time now that they simply aren't listening to these sorts of feature requests that don't tie into their enterprise/business focus – at least since about 2013.
I made a feature request quite a long time ago for LaTeX math support. Every few months another person +1s the suggestion. I don't get the sense that they really take the suggestions on the forum particularly seriously.