I prefer to use just keys. I find the context switch distracting.
>I can’t stress how bad of an editor vanilla Vim is. Plugins are essential to make Vim usable.
I love vanilla vim. I used it for a long time that way. Even now I barely have any plugins running, just YouCompleteMe and a couple others.
>If you want to write a plugin you have to deal with Vimscript.
I thought one can write in Python and other languages for plugins now?
>Everyone remaps Leader from backslash to comma.
I didn't.
>Vim is hideous by design.
I find the minimalism allows me to work without distraction. If you hate it so much, vim bindings are available in other editors. I use XVim for Xcode and some other plugin in Eclipse.
>To code in Vim, you have to keep Vim in your head just as much as the code that you’re editing. You have to constantly think about what you’re doing.
I barely think about the things I'm doing anymore. And I've only been at vim for about a year.
This blog post needs a giant [citation needed]. So many unjustified claims that are really just his opinions. Just use Sublime and get back to doing something productive.