>Of course, if you expand every input out to a full line, it's going to look worse than a string of keypresses. However if we compare more fairly:
Expanding them into new lines outlines the time spent though. ^L is no where near as fast as 2Y.
Expanding them into new lines outlines the time spent though. ^L is no where near as fast as 2Y.
A minor nitpick though, in vim you aren't pressing escape to get to that mode, it's the normal mode, it's where you should always be.
The point I was making though is that with vim you don't exit insert mode to run commands, you enter insert mode to write text and then immediately exit to normal mode.
It may sound pedantic, but it's a core part of understanding vim. Insert mode is the mode you should spend very little time in.