evil-mode is fantastic. (I think it might be the new one you haven't tried yet) combined with key-chord mode, it will handle the "jk mapped to esc" use case, I

evil-mode is fantastic. (I think it might be the new one you haven't tried yet) combined with key-chord mode, it will handle the "jk mapped to esc" use case, I have mine mapped to "jj" (key-chord-define evil-insert-state-map "jj" 'evil-normal-state)