The accepted answer here [1] is what got me to see the light. Once I realized how composable the main commands are, vi became kind of fun.

I still prefer Emacs because of macros and org-mode, but I no longer fear vi when I'm doing a quick edit, editing a huge file, or on a emacsless new machine.

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1218390/what-is-your-mos...