Are you seriously suggesting that nano is a valid replacement for vim?

If vim for you is "the thing you edit config files with when sshing to a server," yes, it is. As a full-fledged development environment, it's not.

In the context of this thread, it is not a valid replacement.

I was able to explain to a first time Linux user how to edit a network/interfaces file using nano. I'm not sure I could have done that with vim. That makes a difference in my book.