I'd probably use Helix if it had 1:1 Kakoune keybindings. Or even Vim bindings.
Vim bindings are not the most consistent, but they are ubiquitous. Every program that offers Vim mode has very similar keymap. If modal text editor deviates from them, it better be for good reason.
Kakoune bindings are very different from Vim, but they are provably and objectively [1] better, so that's fine. They are also more consistent and there is a clear idea behind the whole design. It's written down in documentation. You might prefer Vim or Emacs, but at least you can see that changes from well known Vim scheme are not made at whim.
Helix keymap feels like it was improvised without any thought behind it. „Let's take Kakoune binds and add back visual mode cuz I feel like it.” Currently, they are designed by committee in this GitHub issue[2]. I don't see any design notes and explanations why should I spend time learning Helix keymap.
To be fair, before I used helix, I only used neovims basic keybindings (hjkl, dd, ...) and nothing advanced, so I didn't really need to 'relearn' much, but I completeley understand when someone used a set of keybindings for some time it's really hard to switch.
Vim bindings are not the most consistent, but they are ubiquitous. Every program that offers Vim mode has very similar keymap. If modal text editor deviates from them, it better be for good reason.
Kakoune bindings are very different from Vim, but they are provably and objectively [1] better, so that's fine. They are also more consistent and there is a clear idea behind the whole design. It's written down in documentation. You might prefer Vim or Emacs, but at least you can see that changes from well known Vim scheme are not made at whim.
Helix keymap feels like it was improvised without any thought behind it. „Let's take Kakoune binds and add back visual mode cuz I feel like it.” Currently, they are designed by committee in this GitHub issue[2]. I don't see any design notes and explanations why should I spend time learning Helix keymap.
[1]: https://github.com/mawww/golf [2]: https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/165