Convenience is often a tradeoff for power. Nobody is claiming that vi and its derivatives are convenient, they’re saying it’s powerful.
Personally I’m much much faster using neovim than I could be using something like vscode. There’s a myriad of other benefits that modal text editing brings to the table, not having to use a mouse and constantly switch back and forth being a big one for me.
Songs about Vim (sh.itjust.works)