I agree about tabs and proportional fonts, but I think those are lost causes.
I asked Russ why he didn’t use syntax highlighting and he was like:
“Do you color code all your English by part of speech?”
That stuck with me.
I would if its function was to express strict logic that will be interpreted by a merciless computer.
But I also use "light mode" (white background, black text) in my terminal, editor, etc, so... take all this however you will :)
(In reference to the topic at hand, I've tried seriously using acme, and although its "elegance" is attractive, I wasn't able to make it stick. I'll still open it or sam up every once in a while, and vis (https://git.sr.ht/~martanne/vis) is an editor I always have in the back of my mind to try to use more.)
[1]: The reasons against syntax highlighting in the article seem to be 1. it hides ugly code, 2. it's possible to waste a lot of time on configuring your colorscheme, 3. (not in the article, but) the old "do you syntax highlight prose? I didn't think so". I don't find 1 or 3 to be convincing, and wasting time on a colorscheme... whether it's a "waste" or not depends on your own preferences and circumstances.