What, specifically, is the problem with emulators that make them not teach the right habits? I get that emulators are likely more bloated and have less features than real vim/neovim. But, to me, that's not a dealbreaker, especially since it can be really convenient to use an emulator in an IDE.
As an aside, there are GUIs coming out for Neovim that give you features of IDEs with 100% real backing of Vim/Neovim. Ie, it's actually Neovim, but the GUI is just a frontend with IDE bells and whistles.
Most are pretty young I believe, so maybe not ready for you. I'm sure it's coming though :)
I would agree with this. Emulators typically are missing a few features, so moving from emulator -> vim should work okay. On the other hand, I've never had success going from vim -> emulator. It's always missing a few key features in my muscle memory that completely destroy my productivity.