[rhizome]

It used to be that normal mode was an underline cursor and insert mode was a vertical cursor, but now that I guess vertical cursors are everywhere, Sublime switches between a vertical cursor for normal mode and an underline cursor for insert mode. A bit of a drag, but I don't use insert much at all.

One thing I'd like from the past is a blinking block cursor.

[jgtrosh]

As a vim guy, and I say this because I think it makes more sense in vim, I think you mean insert mode (the “normal” mode) and replace mode (the “insert” mode). The fact that the insert is used to toggle out of the default insertion behaviour seems to add confusion.

[rhizome]

I wasn't using the terms in the vi/m sense, but insert/replace does make more sense.