[setr]

the fact that it was built under certain constraints, which are no longer applicable, does not mean that the design is no longer valid -- it just means it may no longer be valid.

"constraints breed creativity" is the idea that you can end up with a better, more versatile solution -- rather than copping out at the first "good enough" solution. Of course, it's not guaranteed, but still. It's certainly possible that arrow keys are a mistake for total performance (arrows are trivially more visible, but also trivially greater motion from your other work). It's also certainly possible that modal editing is simply more effective than mouse & hotkeys, even if they were only designed because the mouse wasn't available.

Now, escape vs caps-lock-position, I'll give you freely, but generally its fair to judge a design based on current constraints, but not to judge (& discard) a design because it was designed other alternative constraints.