I tried this for a while but it never clicked for me. I prefer using semantically-meaningful groupings like paragraphs or parentheses, it just seems nicer. And relative line numbers wouldn't make, say, 5dw any easier to count.
You can use: df<char> to delete forward (including char),
dt<char> to delete forward until char. (excluding char)
d/<search><Enter> to delete until search pattern is found
In case you wish to type immediately after deleting, replace 'd' with 'c' in the above.
