The logic I always thought was that if you are working at the console on a server and dealing with the default $EDITOR, you most likely are doing some kind of e

The logic I always thought was that if you are working at the console on a server and dealing with the default $EDITOR, you most likely are doing some kind of emergency maintenance. In this scenario, you want to throw the most gentle/easy-to-use editor at the user to ensure they don't accidentally overwrite a file or something else because they've been trying to bring prod back up all night and can't see straight. If you use the box for more than 5 minutes a year, you'll probably change it to vim or whatever you prefer anyway.