Sure, sometimes higher layers end up killing a project before it ships. But there is still a lot of code that ships. For that code, the editor choice may have mattered. I have shipped a lot of code in my day, and since learning vim I have been much more productive. There are projects that may not have even existed were it not for Vim, because I would not have had time to get it done in the tight deadline needed.

But more importantly, I like Vim. It makes me enjoy the process much more. I do carpentry in my spare time, and I think of them much like I do my favorite carpentry tools. While they do enable some projects that otherwise couldn't have happened, most of the time their impact is just improving my experience and quality of output. That matters a great deal to me, regardless of whether it matters several layers up.

You can talk all day about high-level actions and wishes but, at the end of the day, someone needs to write some code. That's me. That's what I do. It matters.

For many, the editor is the software that they spend the most time using. It certainly matters knowing how to use it well.