IMO, it's because mnemonics make more sense than QWERTY keyboard placement. Of course, there are exceptions even in Vim (e.g., ^E and ^Y for viewport scrolling)

IMO, it's because mnemonics make more sense than QWERTY keyboard placement. Of course, there are exceptions even in Vim (e.g., ^E and ^Y for viewport scrolling), but bindings to value rather than pointer for things make it easier for those with alternate layouts (very few apps use scancode rather than keycodes for bindings, but they are possible such as GNOME's Alt+<key above Tab> for same-app window switching).