Anyone who can't modify a style in Word...
...is either lazy or an idiot.
Griz, styles are absolutely THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in any word processor or document creator. If you don't understand styles, you'll never be able to make good-looking documents efficiently.
I agree that Word has some design quirks that have never been corrected. But I use it every day, and have no trouble getting documents to look the way I want, without much difficulty. For "long" documents, I use Ventura.
PS: Please explain to me how your clients foul up the styles and formatting in Word documents, or any other documents, for that matter. The ONLY way this can occur is if the user applies manual formatting when s/he should be using a predefined style.