[armitron]

Emacs is not by any stretch terminal-based. It can work in a terminal, but it also fully supports graphical environments. In fact, I dare say that most Emacs users use the graphical rather than the terminal version.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWQB_9QcGI0

[snazz]

I would consider myself an Emacs user and I use the graphical version too. With the exception of the menu bar and toolbar, Emacs seems to be graphical but not a graphical user interface, if that makes sense. It is still primarily a text-based application controlled through the keyboard. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that approach, but my litmus test is if you lose a significant amount of functionality by using the terminal version instead of the graphical version, it’s graphical. I don’t really lose anything (and I don’t think most people do) when running emacs -nw.

[armitron]

Actually you lose quite a lot, which is of course everything that requires a graphical environment. Examples include smooth pixel-based scrolling (see my other reply below), extensive image support everywhere (e.g. EWW/elfeed/GNUS/Org) which includes animations, PDF viewing (native on macOS), true color / SRGB, SVG rendering, better font support including emojis on macOS and multiple frames.

Maybe you don't care about any of these but don't tell me you don't really lose anything.

[s17n]

No smooth scrolling is a deal breaker for a lot of people I'm guessing

[armitron]

It does have smooth scrolling. On macOS (Emacs mac port), it's the same inertia-based scrolling that every other system app is using and on Linux pixel-based smooth scrolling was added for Emacs 26.

[kamaal]

Smooth scrolling equivalent of editors are bulk editing commands, keyboard macros and Elisp etc.