Yes. The advice to turn the yoke upside down is supposed to reference remapping Caps Lock to Escape, without which Vim destroys your pinky on a standard keyboard. But it's the choice of professionals, so what can we do?
More alternatives: https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key
If any vim enthusiasts haven’t read this history before, this article [1] provides a good overview of how ex/vi came to be. The photo of the Lear Siegler ADM-3A keyboard used by Bill Joy largely explains the odd choice of keys.
[1]: https://twobithistory.org/2018/08/05/where-vim-came-from.htm...
EDIT: removed comment about cursor behavior of ctrl-c, which comes from my vimrc config ^^ Turns out I learned that long ago, but never used it :-D
JJ Abrams disagrees, though.
What if you need to type `jj`? Not uncommon to do so while writing math or physics papers. a_{jj}
Happy vscode user these days. If I find myself fiddling with an editor it's a huge red flag to me that I hate what I'm working on.
What if you need to type "fd" in insert mode? Like fd0, fd1, etc. Isn't that going to be a pain? Do you never have to type "fd"?
That's a pain, but it doesn't come up often. In return you get quite a lot of functionality (due to vim being modal) without having to move your fingers beyond the letter keys, which is quite relaxing.