I agree that Esc is clunky, but most people don't know that ctrl-c has the same behavior. If you remap your caps-lock key to ctrl, it's a very natural keystrok

I agree that Esc is clunky, but most people don't know that ctrl-c has the same behavior. If you remap your caps-lock key to ctrl, it's a very natural keystroke (at least for me) where you don't need to leave the home row.