If it is deprecated in Org mode, maybe we can print a warning message in
echo area?

> but this question will keep coming over and
> over and over until the end of times.

Yet I tried searching Org manual, and also here the mailing list
archive, before posting my latest lame message here.  Maybe I did not
use the correct keyword, maybe something else.

> Clearly, there is a need for the dash, and given the quality and
> syntactic stability of TeX, the problem is not going anywhere
> ... ever.

Absolutely.