Ya I think it's a bit of the dunning-kruger effect at work. He's been using the editor for 2 weeks and can see what it needs more than people who have been using it for years.
I am absolutely not saying that Vim is broken or that Vim is bad for the people that love Vim, I'm saying that Vim doesn't seem to meet expectations of people coming to it fresh. I think the idea of having different distros would help alleviate some of the pain. It looks like Cream has made a good go of it, but sadly no Mac version :(
I honestly feel like a old man on my porch, screaming "Get of my editor lawn!".