> I had never tried emacs before and decided last week, ironically, to try it for the first time

The fact that Emacs and Vim lack features attractive to newcomers tells nothing about their value. Musicians and Craftsmen invest years in learning their tools or instruments [1]. One is left to wonder what a Guitar or a Saxophone would be like, if the concern of the designers were ease of use for someone who picked it up the first time. A famous quote comes to mind [2]:

A computer is like a violin. You can image a novice trying first a phonograph and then a violin. The latter, he says, sounds terrible. That is the argument we have heard from our humanists and most of our computer scientists. Computer programs are good, they say, for particular purposes, but they aren't flexible. Neither is a violin, or a typewriter, until you learn how to use it.

Marvin Minsky, "Why Programming Is a Good Medium for Expressing Poorly-Understood and Sloppily-Formulated Ideas"

I further refer you to fine writing of Eric Naggum [3] who had more to say on a similar topic, and I daresay he does it way better than I ever would.

[1] http://norvig.com/21-days.html

[2] http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/front/node3.html

[3] http://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/3065048088243385@naggum....