I've since switched to god-mode [0], which just turns emacs keybindings into modal ones. I find it works quite well. I think emacs keybindings are easier to remember but harder to use. Turning them modal solved that for me. (For example, Ctrl + F for forward, Ctrl + B for backward is easy to remember, but hjkl is right by your fingertips).
Side-note, it looks like god-mode was archived and then made part of the emacs orphanage. I started using it years after it was archived before it was part of the emacs orphanage. Noticed no issues, since again all it does is just make emacs keybindings modal.