> I don't understand why these electron editors are popular at all.

I would like to understand this better too. I'm guessing vim and emacs take too much time to learn, since they drag the whole unix ecosystem with them. Sublime might be a decent easier to learn editor, but it's a non-free product that could disappear one day, you have to go through the hassle of buying it and it's expensive one too. So sublime is not even a choice for most people. This leaves us with electron based editors as an acceptable choice. But obviously bloat, performance still matter and people will choose something better if available.