Why is there no support for RTF files in Pages?

Because Apple chose to exclude it. If you had Pages ’08/’09 installed before Pages v5+, then RTF support remains in /Application/iWork ’09/Pages.app. Otherwise, you may need LibreOffice, if TextEdit is insufficient for your usage.

Since this is a user-to-user support forum I'm not sure anyone here can give you the reason. You can provide feedback/suggestion to Apple at https://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html

I've given up on Pages after trying to use it for over a year and a half and now use Open Office -- free and more capability generally.

You are not alone.

Actions speak louder than words, but Apple does manage to still distract many from what is self evident before them.

I am astonished by those who swear that non-existent features, or features that pre-exist the current version make Pages 5.2 a major upgrade.

An affect that does seem to wear off with familiarity, as each version of Pages 5 gets a boost in the App Store, only to see the disapproval rating surge back again.

Pages was always one of the top purchases in the App Store, now it doesn't even rate.

Peter

RTF support in Pages?

Good luck. Who do we think we are, Taylor Swift?

I've been sending my comments to the Pages team for what seems like eons, and I've gotten not one lick of response—not to mention a shred of .rtf support, unless you call Copy and Paste .rtf support.

Pathetic, Apple. Just. Pathetic.

Don't feel so bad, we have been giving Apple feedback on Pages since it first came out and what Apple gave us instead of improvements was Pages 5.

I've given up. Still use Pages '09 until something better comes along but treat .pages as a legacy format. Don't store anything important in .pages documents.

Peter