I think you're missing out a little here. Sure, vim doesn't make you more productive. Sure, time spent learning vim is probably better spent programming.
However, vim is just great fun. That's why people obsess over it, fundamentally. It makes tricky and repetitive transformations of text intuitive and enjoyable.
This is such a fundamental disconnect from my idea of fun that I don't think we're going to see eye to eye on this ;)
> It makes tricky and repetitive transformations of text intuitive and enjoyable.
Given the fact that the number one phrase involving vim is "how do I do X in vim" I think intuitive is something that shouldn't even be in the same zipcode as it.
> intuitive is something that shouldn't even be in the same zipcode as it.
That's the thing, though. It's very different to non-modal text editors, so there's this learning 'cliff', where you get frustrated by how unfamiliar it is.
However, when it comes down to it - the neat thing about Vi is it's a re-imagining of what a text-editor is. Non vi-like editors essentially derive from the metaphor of a typewriter. You have a cursor, the print head, and you enter text there. You can use your hand (mouse) to change where the print head is pointing. You can highlight sections, as if with a pen - copy and paste stuff, as if you were using scissors. These functions are displayed a bit like the extra functions of one of those late-model electronic typewriters, where you could press a key-combination to get some neat functionality.
The nice thing about Vim is it accepts that editing text on a computer isn't like this. When you edit on a computer, you jump into a pre-existing text, mostly, adding or changing. So, for this reason, it has lots of functions for accurately manipulating sections of text, like words, or things between brackets, or sentences.
This kind of functionality is pretty standard for a good editor, but I think the thing Vi got really right is organizing these functions. The problem with having lots of functions is that they're hard to remember. So Vi structures them like a language.
So in the end, I think it's more intuitive than other editors. It doesn't work within the context of an outdated metaphor, and, it structures the functions that allow it to surpass that metaphor in a way that makes them extremely easy to discover and to remember.
> I think intuitive is something that shouldn't even be in the same zipcode as it.
The Vi keybindings and command set is largely self-consistent and follows common patterns. So while it might not be intuitive to someone unfamiliar with it, it becomes very intuitive once you grok the core patterns and concepts. There have been plenty of times I have strung together sets of commands and only noticed afterwards that this was technically a new behavior I'd never invoked before.
However, vim is just great fun. That's why people obsess over it, fundamentally. It makes tricky and repetitive transformations of text intuitive and enjoyable.