id suspect VIM would have a very hard time if it was coming out now and nobody knew about it, even for free. That doesnt mean its not awesome, but VIM is all about its legacy, huge ecosystem and hype.
I don't agree with the "hype" part. Where's the hype? I use vim because it gets the job done.
I switched to vim about a month ago and am more productive now than I ever was before. I'd fight to keep vim in my toolkit. Modal editing, jump commands, chained actions, macros, tiling, windowing and configurability are just a few of the features I would miss if I had to switch back.
Non-vimmers: Don't get blinded by the hype, vim rocks for practical reasons.
And because it's available everywhere I guess. Without such wide availability (that's what "hype" probably refers to), I don't think it would have been so popular.