I can deal with that metaphor, if "a race car in first gear" is still faster than a lot of other cars.

Plus, it's the same race car. I've programmed half-a-dozen languages quite seriously in emacs, and I'm not changing editors the whole time. So, while I may not know elisp, I do know a fair amount about emacs and don't have to relearn how to do a lot of things in a new IDE every three years... or, worse yet, discover that entire features are missing because "nobody" has ever used an editor that had them. (I'm not sure I could live without macros of some sort in an editor.)

I would say it's more like driving a race car but - provided you use one of the many configurations or frameworks ala Spacemacs/Doom out there - having the gears automated by the car's system.

An experienced racer would be much better off with driving in manual, but for a beginner or someone never expecting to push the car to its limits the automated gears are plenty good enough.