You think 280loc as a starter is not much?
- 34 lines to set up plugin manager/install plugins
- 43 for keybinds
- 35 for documentation
- 50 for autocompletion
- 20 for customizing one language server for plugin development (sumneko)
It adds up for sure, and neovim/vim/emacs are not ever likely going to be as plug & play as vscode/intellij, but I would argue the target user for vim/neovim/emacs is someone who wants more customization, which is almost always going to mean the configuration is more verbose.
If you have concrete suggestions on cutting down this config in particular, you can file an issue/PR. The main reason I created this, was because we (core neovim team) get a lot of "I just want something that works" type feedback (which to many includes autocompletion and default keybinds, which are almost 1/3 of the config)
Neovim has already integrated many of the "obvious defaults" (see :help nvim-defaults), but if you're a user and feel that something is missed you should file an issue.
I personally don't mind that the defaults may not be what I'd like, as once they are set, I spend very little time modifying my system configuration. I realize this can be a barrier to new users though.