But the average vim user is jumping to new instances often, so if he has to reconfigure it everywhere he might as well install a different editor with a config.

I have over 100 custom keybindings in my Vim config and can assure you I can still use the default configuration without any issues, it's just a bit slower.

The few settings I find really important can just be quickly set with a couple commands. No big deal.

I am not sure thats true. vim does give you extra utility in its availability on a wide variety of server-type platforms, but I suspect most vim users are using it actively for development on their local (or docker etc) boxes

Yep, lots of us "Vim as a local IDE" users out here. I haven't "jumped around machines" in years.

Vim is a nugget of battle-tested familiarity in an industry of constant change.

Lets see, how many commands does it take me to port my entire vim config to a new machine? Ah, right...one.

    git clone https://github.com/MY_USERNAME/vim.git

Not exactly what I'd call a difficult or time consuming method.

you missed the ~/.vim at the end