Helix's modal editing is based on Kakoune's modal editing which is like an evolution to Vim's modal editing. You can think of it as being always in selection (visual) mode. https://github.com/mawww/kakoune?tab=readme-ov-file#selectio...

I moved to helix after using vim/neovim for a long time. I much prefer helix' kakoune-inspired object>verb/select>action to vi(m) verb>object.

As others have said, I recommend giving it a try, eg with the tutorial.

That said - if you enjoy the view from the emacs mountain top, you might find helix hill to be too small - helix is not an operating system.

I prefer it that way, others might not.

It couldn't hurt to try a different editing paradigm but as a daily Helix user but I wouldn't switch over just for that. It's different, not better or worse than Vim's.

On eMacs there’s kakoune.el and meow that you can try out.