Still: is anyone complaining of Emacs or Vim or ST3 being slow/complex because they have installed plugins to the core?
What's an example in the wild of this "cycle of bloat" in which people complain about it?
What's an example in the wild of this "cycle of bloat" in which people complain about it?
Emacs? Yes. Absolutely. Emacs once stood, humorously, for “Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping”. That is a valid complaint that people have made.
First it was lean. Then it grew and became bloated. Then people complained. And then available resources grew so fast that it didn't matter.
I didn't say emacs is too bloated to use, so your entire comment is a little off base. I said people have complained about emacs getting bloated in this same way for the same reasons. And they have. Historical fact.
Atom exists because ST3 was seen to stagnate, ST3 exists because TextMate was seen to stagnate etc. They start as simple but incomplete tools that are moving fast and blah blah - its just the software circle of life.