Interesting article about the birth of vim and “line” editors. I am a vim fan. Besides punch cards in my early programming, I used TECO which was very cryptic but I was able to adapt quickly to ed, ex, vi and finally vim. Some people prefer emacs but it did not pass my first test of a nice program so I remained with vi and vim.
I do not like to be hijacked by any software, so my first step is to check how easy it is to get out of the program. I should be able to get out in less that 2-3 keystrokes or 2-3 clicks. If so, it indicates a good design to me.
“What I am trying to say that vim is an effort of over half a century of good idea accumulation, putting lots of effort into being backward compatible.”
https://pragmaticpineapple.com/how-did-vim-become-so-popular/