Spacemacs is interesting... it has the idea of additional layers on top of it, might be usable... still will take a lot to pull me away from my well configured vim setup.
I highly suggest using emacs for a specific type of task to try it out, don't go wholesale. Try using it just for taking meeting notes, or maybe only for writing a specific language (skewer-mode / swankjs is a great place to start).
Also, I seriously suggest not starting with evil, but others may disagree. Learning to extend your editor as opposed to configure your editor is a big thing.
I experimented with god-mode, which seems like a good middle, but I am a highly competent 2 decade vim user, the vim keys are virtually hard-coded into my brain.
The key to not having RSI with something like emacs' modifiers (or any modifiers really) has been the kinesis keyboard where modifiers are the thumbs, and using sticky keys.
Vim or no vim, these are very helpful and I highly recommend.
Evil can be a good place to start, I guess I'm just worried that most beginners would be stuck "configuring" evil instead of extending emacs into whatever works best for you (which may include evil).
As a contractor working on laptops for years, it never become my "normal" keyboard.