Emacs users have all the fun. And just like eve online or dwarf fortress, I can't seem to get fully into them myself, but I love reading stories about it.
I took three approaches for me over a span of two years to really get into emacs. It was pretty tough (a time before google was a thing).
Now iam spoiled - I recently tried vscode a bit and really was baffled because it seems there is no kill ring like the one in emacs that makes it basically impossible to lose any edits.
RimWorld is a game that makes me want to fuse with an LLM. It already has an incredibly sophisticated backstory and memory and motivation system; it can't be too much work to hook up an LLM to get the pawns to speak and act in novel ways.
I've stuck with it so far (over 3 years in). I've learned a few Emacs-isms (M-x is indispensable) but it's pretty convenient to press space and be presented with a list of choices if I've forgotten certain key bindings.
I'm unlikely to give up evil with ~25 years of Vi/Vim muscle memory, but I'm open to trying other systems in the future. Since Vi/Vim operations are verb -> object, the advantages of object -> verb commands are tempting so one can see the target of a command before it's actual execution. The Vim workaround is invoking visual mode, of course.
Obviously with vanilla Vim, you're going to have to memorize everything and I eventually did that way back when. Being presented with the key bindings menu helps to remind me of things that I use less frequently and avoids time spent digging into the help system.
Sorry for the slow reply (but then my HN replies are never guaranteed either).