What drew me to TM1 were the several innovative features for the time (mid 2000s) that were promptly copied into other editors (and sometimes improved there):

What drew me to TM1 were the several innovative features for the time (mid 2000s) that were promptly copied into other editors (and sometimes improved there): * snippets * fuzzy file finder * project file list * multi-column editing This is in addition to the non-text related good things TM did: grouping languages, snippets and scripts into a single folder, the bundle community, etc. However, those 4 features were what moved me over to TM - I was more than willing to plunk down my $50 for these features that no other editor (at the time) had