Vim and Emacs are old text editors, both created in the 1970s, about 50 years ago. Both of them have a steep learning curve. In both cases, the effort is worth it. You will learn new ways of working with text, code, and editors. You will learn tools that are free, easily available, and kind to your computer. You will become part of a long developer tradition.
Vim's strengths are its ubiquity, search and replace, and keyboard navigation. Vim is everywhere. If you log into any unix-like computer, chance are that vim is available. If it isn't, it is small enough that you can install it quickly.
Vim's search and replace capabilities are one of my favorites. You can search the whole file or a range of lines. You can do a find and replace via regex. You can commit to changing everything all at once, or you can set it so that it asks you for confirmation before every change. Once you understand even a little, it speeds editing so much. You can quickly find the area that you want to edit. You can make mass edits all at once.
They keyboard navigation is my favorite feature. Being able to navigate using just the keyboard improves the speed that you can write and edit code. You can quickly find code using the search capability. Then one can get to the line and word that one needs to edit using combinations of single letter keystrokes. You can easily move lines of code around with a few keystrokes. These keystrokes are also easy on your wrists; way easier than using a mouse.
Emacs' main strength are its architecture and scripting language. Emacs has a beautiful software architecture. I can't do it justice, but I can give you enough information to encourage you to go and learn more by yourself. Each keystroke is sent to text editor server, and it is then evaluated into a command. This command may do something as simple as typing the letter 'e' in the current document, or it can format text or execute code. Emacs' power comes from this architecture. I have seen people describe emacs as a software development platform for text user interfaces (UI). That is how powerful Emacs is.
Emacs' scripting language, Emacs Lisp, is what enables people to write great libraries. Lisp is simple and beautiful, and easy to learn. Emacs Lisp allows for people to write special programs that augment the power of Emacs. Emacs' libraries provide all kind of amazing features.
Vim and Emacs achieve the same goals in different ways. They are also different from other common text editors or integrated development environments (IDE), such as VSCode, Visual Studio, or JetBrains editors. Being aware of the diversity of solutions to the same problem helps one pick what works for oneself. It also helps one use other editors or IDEs better, because we have an idea of what is available, and a frame of reference to compare them with.
Keep in mind that one doesn't have to dive in and learn everything about Vim or Emacs to start using them. Like all practices, getting some simple editing going at first is the most important step. One can learn one editing trick at a time.
For years, I would use vim like notepad. I knew how to go into insert mode, I knew how to save, and how to close the program. I learned everything else little by little. My development life has been better because of it.
Currently, I am using the same pattern to learn how to use Emacs. I am using it mainly for its Org Mode, a library that provides a lot of cool features for authoring documents and creating todo lists. You can read my personal story with vim and emacs if you wish to learn more about how I learned and learning these editors.
I hope that this post will encourage you to try Vim or Emacs. Even if you decide that you don't like them, you will have insights into these two developer cultures.
You should try Vim and Emacs because
Vim is everywhere
Vim's keybindings are easy on your wrists and increase editing productivity
Emacs has a great architecture
Emacs scripting language empowers you to adapt the editor to your whims
Vim and Emacs have a great ecosystem of libraries
Old tech has a proven track record. Vim and Emacs won't ago away