i have a .vimrc file that set C-C/C-X/C-V to work in each mode; that gets me the best of both worlds: fast text navigation in normal mode as i can switch to the next/previous word with w/b; but I can still copy and paste (limits us to one buffer, though; nothing is perfect)

https://github.com/MoserMichael/myenv/blob/master/VIMENV.md