[jhchabran]

May I advise to give a try to Doom instead? It has less ambitious objectives [1] and feels much snappier while providing a similar experience (vim-like, out of the box)

Also, if you enjoy the experience provided by emacs + evil, giving a try to the native compilation branch of emacs 28 gives noticeable improvement in terms of speed.

[1] Spacemacs "it's a sophisticated and polished set-up, focused on ergonomics, mnemonics and consistency" VS being focused on speed, https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs#introduction

[hannofcart]

Thanks for taking the time to give a detailed recommendation. Setting up Doom right now!