[throwaway4496]

Yeah, even if that is true, what part of a tool used by close to 40% of developers is niche?

niche /niːʃ,nɪtʃ/ (adjective) denoting products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.

[davrosthedalek]

It's niche /for development work/. Being used by a developer doesn't make it used for development. Or the most used developing tool would be the toilet.

[epcoa]

While not going to argue that vim is niche, I don’t think it is. StackExchange surveys are likely highly unrepresentative and lack external validity. I do not believe 40% of developers use vim based on such an unvalidated and likely biased study.