Also a returning Emacs user this last 3 years after almost an entire working lifetime of (n)vi and vim, post 1984/5.

I agree with the sentiment here mostly: very few commands go an awfully long way, with org mode about the only Melpa add on I know I use.

I do wish I could remember some chording to avoid a few long winded M-x command strings being typed. And the cut/yank thing is .. annoyingly inverse to most people's language as is window and frame.

That said, I am more fluent in vi. Modes are a pattern just as valid as modeless. We're all meta all the time. Sometimes being immersed in the whole (-emacs) is what I want and sometimes I want a :1,$s/earch/and replace/g experience and being mode-full is fine.