Curious. Unergonomic compared to what? Given your comment about separating commands and input language, I assume you’re using a non-modal editor, which usually rely more on modifiers than Vim.
Personally, I haven’t found any ergonomic non-modal editor, where I by “ergonomic” mean no RSI pain even after heavy usage. For me, the fact that editing in Vim is comfortable is its main selling point (more so than its speed).
> mistakes can lead to destructive consequences
I do often make mistakes, but I can’t remember the last time I accidentally did something so destructive in Vim that I couldn’t just undo it normally.
For example, I'm sometimes transposing characters, e.g. q: instead of :q, or :w! command instead of :w !command, that sort of thing. Undoable, of course, just not with a simple u.
Modifier-based shortcuts in other editors and IDEs appear to be more forgiving.