The source code to ed(1) is substantially harder to memorize, and the mobile experience is sub-par. ed(1) may seem to have strong user metrics, but they’re artificially inflated by users who don’t know how to close it and thus have kept the same session open since the early 1970s, making it difficult to inform them of other options.

> the mobile experience is sub-par

To be fair, your editor’s tty experience is pretty much nonexistent. Tty is surely more important than mobile, don’t you think?!

Now, data:text/html, <textarea> at least works with w3m, but when I try to edit the textarea (surprise!) it just launches ed(1).

ed shines on movile on advanced usage, much more than any other editor.

Butterflies are actually pretty complex, especially relative to their usage as editors.