I hear you. My point is either vim or emacs is a much better choice than those "beginner-friendly" editors that the op would recommend to new devs. Simple: no pain, no gain. Both vim and emacs are painful enough for most people to learn, but the reward is substantial and long-lasting.

Side note: I think I'd love emacs if I hadn't learned vim first. Having a real programming language (elisp) for configuration and extension is nice.