>Many people don't realize this, but Vim arose from vi, which in turn arose from "ed".
So what if it "arose" from previous software? Should we hold a wake for the UNIX model? Everything as a file? Come on, it's 2012! I'll spare you a list of popular software that still employs metaphors from the 70s and just say that vim != ed. The robust plugin system alone allows vim to be pretty much anything you want, and I can't think of any features from any modern IDE that vim doesn't support.
You're missing the point that Vim still has the infrastructure of the original program -- it still has three separate modes: insert, delete and move the cursor, just as its distant predecessor did. This has no purpose except to agree with tradition.
Actually Vim has 6 basic modes, but none of them are "delete" or "move the cursor".
And the purpose of modal editing in the modern day is that, when editing and not just composing, you don't have to spend your day holding down various combinations of modifier keys.
So what if it "arose" from previous software? Should we hold a wake for the UNIX model? Everything as a file? Come on, it's 2012! I'll spare you a list of popular software that still employs metaphors from the 70s and just say that vim != ed. The robust plugin system alone allows vim to be pretty much anything you want, and I can't think of any features from any modern IDE that vim doesn't support.