Tim Visher writes:

> On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 8:19 PM Kyle Meyer <kyle@kyleam.com> wrote:

>> Thanks for reporting.  Is this addressed by the in-progress series at
>> <https://orgmode.org/list/87o8hwpz34.fsf@gmail.com/>?
>>
>
> IIUC yes. I believe the following section of the diff should address it.
[...]
> If I'm reading the code correctly, `org-html-plain-text` is a specialized
> form of converting org data into a plain text string with no markup. If I
> have that correct then I believe you're right.
>
> Is that your read as well?

Yep.  And as a light test:

    #+title: a *b* c

exports

  <title>a *b* c</title>

rather than

  <title>a <b>b</b> c</title>