Can DITA be rendered to PDF via LaTeX rather than XSL-FO?

I think the reason why there are no publicly available DITA to PDF conversions via LaTeX is that no one has needed to make one. Technically it should be equally easy as generating XSL FO and processing that. For example DocBook seems to have conversion to LaTeX.

I'm a university lecturer -- now also programme director -- in engineering. For me TeX/LaTeX is still unbeatable for writing research papers etc., but DITA is the perfect medium for teaching materials in STEM subjects: it imposes a highly structured style which students need, and the range of online and print output media now available is amazing. DITA's adoption low? Over the time I've been watching, it's grown explosively.

Yes, TeX output would be nice, and early on I asked the same question. But if you're writing math, most browsers offer good MathML support and if the free FOP FO processor in the DITA Open Toolkit isn't up to TeX quality for PDF, you can buy a better one. Generally the PDF quality you get depends mainly on the stylesheets you use. Those in DITA OT are just demos, but Antenna House's free 'PDF5' stylesheets are fantastic, and I find XSL styles a lot easier to customise than TeX.

In short: you don't write the same things in DITA that you write in TeX and if you do, you really can get equally good PDF output by going beyond the Open Toolkit. Stick with it!