I use Ctrl-c instead of esc, works really nice for me. I prefer it to jk actually. But that's the thing, choice. That's the best thing about our tools and operating systems. Respect for the user choice.
> Quit insert mode, go back to Normal mode. Do not check for abbreviations. Does not trigger the InsertLeave autocommand event.
If you don't use abbreviations then there but if insert-based plugins aren't working as described, this may be why.
Of course you can solve this with `inoremap <c-c> <esc>`.
i took a unix course my third semester at uni and we had an entire 2 weeks dedicated to vim and how to feel more comfortable in our environments. we were only allowed to ssh into our development environments and the professor noted he's had a lot of success after ensuring everyone felt a-okay at the command line. at the end, we had an extra credit assignment where we got to show off our configs and present to the class why we made the choices we made. some kid even got me to start using some cool plugins (goyo, if i remember correctly), he introduced me to neovim!