You're not reading some of the most cogent arguments here: most vim/Emacs/etc power users couldn't even tell you what keyboard command to use precisely because

You're not reading some of the most cogent arguments here: most vim/Emacs/etc power users couldn't even tell you what keyboard command to use precisely because they don't think about it. It's reflex, muscle memory, completely out of mind so that it doesn't get in the way of getting code from your mind to the machine. Maybe it's that way for some mousers as well, but given that code is text, it's kind of doubtful. There's also the fact that if you have to break your concentration to context switch to the mouse, you will lose your flow. Try coding in an editor, any editor, for 8, 9, 12 hours a day and see if you don't start forgetting the keyboard shortcuts because they become reflexive. Vi and Emacs are just hyperdesigned to enhance this effect. EDIT: And I don't care that you link to Bruce Tognazzini, a GUI designer, when millennia of musicians have known that they don't think about what combinations of fingers they press to get an F#, they just play a glissando with an F# in the middle.