Neovim allowed innovation that vim initially stifled, and its success motivated Vim to catch up. I think the fork has been good for Vim.
I wonder why that is. Just a bigger tent, with some of the benefits being committed back to vim? More pressure to bring in features from neovim pushing the pace faster? I'd be curious to hear an explanation if anyone has one.
IIRC there was pushback from vim devs to implement async, so neovim did it. Shortly after async also made it to vim
Just goes to show when devs push back, push harder.