These tools are not 100% free (as in beer) when you factor in your time. I spent years ($$) customizing my Vim setup and saved tons of time ($$) when I finally switched to IntelliJ with IdeaVim.
I switched to Emacs and that gave me enormous freedom to change things to my liking instead of just learning how to live with the way how IntelliJ people envisioned it. So one can say: switching to Emacs saved me years of waiting for the features I wanted in IntelliJ.
Sometimes brewing your own beer gives you much better satisfaction that you can't buy with any kind of money. And you can say it's 100% free beer, but it is not, when you factor your time.