I started a similar project in 2013, sadly never delivered a working prototype. Its name was going to be "Kuji Editor", basically an editor in visual mode by default and with context-verb grammar instead of vi's verb-object grammar. I knew this would represent a big improvement over other editors because of a more intuitive and modern approach leading to a better workflow.

I started with building the UI in PyGame but never got further than that...

(I am really disappointed I didn't spend more time on this now I see the attention Kakoune gets. I would have loved the feeling of contributing something truly innovative... well...). Congrats to Maxime!