You can also preface those with a quantity. As a pretty arbitrary example, 5dwelp* is "5 delete-word move-to-end-of-next-word right paste", or, "move the next five words forward one word".
In Emacs, repeat is C-x z, by the way, and then you can just keep hitting z.
Focusing on what it can do is irrelevant. I've been programming 29 years now. Can't think of a time I've needed to do that.
If I still used vi regularly, I probably could have given you a better example. Actually, I couldn't, but my fingers could have. :) It had all moved to muscle-memory.
Emacs's interface is a bit more cumbersome, but it's also easier to follow it with, "...and from now on, call that X and add it to the interface".