I've always seen it as a trade-off based on what I'm using Vim a lot for. When I'm using Vim remotely on a hundred different systems I admin, then having a good grasp of of being comfortable using the defaults is extremely useful, and it feels painful to try to use something that's not enabled by default that is my preference. When I'm doing developing something more complex, I definitely appreciate more customization.
Vim (or at least some vi derivative) is semi-unique among many of the more complex tools we use in that it exists by default on just about every Unix host you connect to, so it has sort of a dual life in that respect. It's many people's go-to tool for local development, but it's also the default tool you can rely on for text editing remotely. Those use cases have somewhat separate pressures they place on how people use it.
Managing servers was why I started using vim other places. I started to use it for basic text editing and for coding, just so I could practice and not feel dumb when I needed it (far too often) on a production box. I also avoided too much customization for this reason too.
Still use vim for as much as I can. The language is too rich, and there’s a lot of muscle memory I’ve built up. It also tickles some part of my brain that’s always looking for better, faster, more effortless ways to do things, so I feel like it prompts learning in ways no other software I’ve used does.
Vim (or at least some vi derivative) is semi-unique among many of the more complex tools we use in that it exists by default on just about every Unix host you connect to, so it has sort of a dual life in that respect. It's many people's go-to tool for local development, but it's also the default tool you can rely on for text editing remotely. Those use cases have somewhat separate pressures they place on how people use it.