conversions were done using https://github.com/pennae/nix-doc-munge
using (probably) rev f34e145 running
nix-doc-munge nixos/**/*.nix
nix-doc-munge --import nixos/**/*.nix
the tool ensures that only changes that could affect the generated
manual *but don't* are committed, other changes require manual review
and are discarded.
this renders the same in the manpage and a little more clearly in the
html manual. in the manpage there continues to be no distinction from
regular text, the html manual gets code-type markup (which was probably
the intention for most of these uses anyway).