> Pretty much everyone knows the price of admission to using tools like Vim and Emacs is the time investment in config and learning the quirks.
To me, the real hurdle to vim (or emacs) isn't configuration : it's learning vim (or emacs). That muscle memory doesn't come from a .vimrc file, and it doesn't come overnight. Is that what you meant by "quirks"?
Muscle memory only comes after using your editor of choice for a considerable amount of time. With Vim, as a mnemonic, internally talking with the editor is the best way to go: for instance, if you need to change the content of a string literal like "hello world" just think Change Inside ". To me learning Vim is essentially learning a live programming language.
It can be said about anything, but it obviously applies more to CLI based editors since literally everything requires specialized muscle memory. Take a super simple example : Unless I've literally never used a computer before, I don't need new muscle memory to copy or cut out a block of text with VS Code, or Sublime, or Atom.
It's the same story with the muscle memory though. Build it up once, then the effort of learning new things is not very large.
I don't think anybody doubts that there's a steep learning curve and some investment required to get set up, but you get a completely custom user experience out of it. And if you stick with it for years you're definitely getting your investment back.
To me, the real hurdle to vim (or emacs) isn't configuration : it's learning vim (or emacs). That muscle memory doesn't come from a .vimrc file, and it doesn't come overnight. Is that what you meant by "quirks"?