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> Vim is already the best and most customizable modal editor

Weird statement. "Best" is up to debate, but "most customizable" is definitely Emacs.

I cannot really imagine a really good non-modal programmer's editor. Surely it should behave differently when editing Python compared to editing HTML?

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You're using the emacs definition of major modes. "Modal editor" has a different meaning. Vim has three modes [1]. Emacs is not considered a modal editor, but some of its features are similar to Vim's last-line mode.

[1] https://alvinalexander.com/linux/vim-vi-mode-editor-command-...

Run Emacs in Evil mode or similar and you get modal editing inside a special editor mode. If anything, Emacs is an extra-modal editor. :)

Emacs is IDE, like Eclipse or Idea. It contains text editor, of course, but it much more than just text editor. It's not fair to compare say GEdit and Eclipse in terms of configurability, because GEdit is text editor, while Eclipse is IDE.

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