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Modal editing exists because the mouse didn't exist then, and it continues to exist because modal editing is very powerful because you get to be in a mode where you type commands for cursor movements, textual transformations, etc., which allows power users to be very productive.

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I don't think I've ever seen evidence that emacs users actually need to be very productive in their text editor even if it works.

Though it might not work - the original Mac user research found that keyboards make users think they're faster, but don't actually make them faster, because of time blindness.

Do you have a link for that claim?

https://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html

That's conjecture.

$50 million in 1980s dollars of conjecture?

Oy, I skimmed over that line. There's no link to any actual study results though, is there?

I wouldn't know. I'm a vi user. I don't know how much more productive I am with VI than non-modal editors, and even if I did know that would just be anecdotal, but I feel more productive coding in (Neo)vi(m) than I do in any non-modal editor, and it's much more comfortable anyways.

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