[mercer]

I'll name one use case where Vim's approach helps me out a lot: macros.

Quite often I need to edit a whole bunch of lines of code/data in a similar way. simply being able to repeat a particular set of 'motions' x times, or on whatever line I'm one, has often proven quite useful.

I'm sure that many people don't really need to do this much, but for me it's probably something that crops up daily (when I'm working), at least once. Often multiple times.

The fact that I can perform complex operations and record them with no extra mental load, is definitely one reason I'm sticking with Vim (or rather, evil on Emacs).

[jdrek1]

That's a reason I can get behind. I agree though, most people probably don't need that, but in such cases it's great to have a tool like that available. Thanks!

[mercer]

I'd say that does illustrate why I chose to just get proficient in Vim though. There are enough of these kinds of scenarios where having it available is very useful. But if you don't know Vim, you wouldn't bother learning it for just them.

For example, I couldn't imagine using a browser without Vim keybindings anymore. I wouldn't have learned how to use any kind of shortcut/keyboard-only extension, but since I already used Vim it was a no-brainer.

It's a lot of little benefits here and there, and I think taking a bit of time to get comfortable with it would even benefit no-programmers who do a lot of text editing. Plus geek cred ;).