I found jk to be the best. If I use it in normal mode it is a no op (cursor up and down). The english language (and most all programming languages) don’t have words with a jk sequence in them (unlike kj). It works universally across all keyboards and terminals. My fingers are already there (unlike esc which is just as bad as lifting my hands to use the mouse). Plus in the rare case I do need jk inputed (very very rare) first the default is a safe default (esc) and second the mental load to pause while typing (pressing j wait past the half second timeout then press k) is no different then the mental load to choose to accept the expansion of abbreviations or delay typing to get around the auto expansion triggers.

Jk for the win!!! (Also jj works well to).

I also set my mapleader to <Space> you would be surprised how useful that is. Not to mention , (comma) is a valid and useful vi movement key.