Well I was spending too much time with configuration, and (this is the main reason I guess) configuration was very often broken, because plugins have changed too often, so I was continuously fixing the plugins, which was time-consuming and annoying. To be fair that was when lua support slowly stabilized, I think the situation got a little bit better, but even more so for helix (I'm using helix now for 2 years I think).

And also helix is fast, very fast (this was also a reason: instant feedback), you really feel, that everything there is done in the core implementation (no plugin system yet unfortunately, but I have almost everything I need currently with helix, unlimited undo + persistent session would be cool, but otherwise I'm happy).

Also after using it a little bit more, the kakoune inspired visual/selection first makes more sense IMO, it's feels more intuitive ("darn, I miscalculated 3fs, so I'll just press v and go to the next s manually", or multiple cursors as selections, you see exactly what you're doing, no cgn or stuff like that)