I never broke the habit myself, and I suspect the benefit is a lot smaller on a laptop keyboard versus an AT keyboard.
Actually, the same is true of most vim stuff: does being able to delete text 2 seconds quicker really make you more productive? Beats me. But after you get used to being able to tell the computer what you want to happen and have it happen (e.g., delete everything inside these parentheses), using the old method of moving around the cursor just feels bad.
First, you can use ctrl+[ to get out of insert, which means moving your hands less.
Even better (but requires customization), you can remap "jk" to get out of insert mode. Since "jk" is a combination that never comes up in actual writing, it works great. And it means you don't have to move your hands at all from home row.
:imap jk <Esc>
And the only times I remember having to actually type jj are when I'm having the Vim keymapping conversation with somebody who asks "So how do you type 'jj'?
:)
(EDIT: uhh, the :) is a smiley, not part of the command)
Ctrl-O takes you to normal mode for a single command and then automatically goes back to insert mode.
Frankly, I find it easier to map Caps to Escape. Only problem is when you use other people's systems and you keep hitting caps lock when you mean to hit escape (Even if you're not in Vim)
But yeah, I /can't/ use others computers without getting utterly frustrated because of that. :)
All of this assume that you type 10-finger blind, but I guess if you can't even do that you have other priorities than learning vim.
When I help people learn vim, one of the first things I do is disable the arrow buttons in insert mode. I tell them that they should avoid using them even in normal mode. I feel that this crutch ends up hurting you in the end. On the other hand, writing text in non-vim contexts is maddening with all it's arrow-arrow-arrow-backspace-backspace-backspace pain. I don't see how 99% of people can stand to do it this way :)
http://www.viemu.com/a-why-vi-vim.html
See "misconception #4" for this particular point.
In Vim, especially the GUI version, it's perfectly possible to just press 'i' and then putter around in your text file, moving around with cursor keys and Home/End and such, deleting, typing, and only occasionally dropping back into "command mode" (as it is often called) to delete a line, or search for something, or save the document (assuming the GUI version doesn't have key bindings set up for this already). I used Vim like this for over a decade, never really understanding the point.
As the article points out, this is completely wrong. You stay in command mode (called "normal mode" here, which gives it a different feel immediately -- it's the mode you normally should be in), and switch to insert mode only to type short bursts of text. Everything else is done in command mode.
While this seems weird at first, once you start getting the hang of it, it starts paying off big time. There are a zillion commands that do something and then enter insert mode. I used to think they were completely redundant; there's already 'i' and 'a' to do that, why have more? Because, obviously, when you spend most of your time in "normal mode", this allows you to execute a command and immediately start typing text. E.g. to insert a new line below the current one, you press 'o', and Vim inserts the line, indents it properly (if you have autoindent set), and is ready for typing.
While this is hardly heavy wizardry, once you know a couple dozen of these commands, editing becomes a very different experience. You just move through the text differently.
Anyway, the article explains this, and a lot more, much better than I can do it here. :-)