my reasoning was : you could have mapped caps lock to ESC but you did not. So maybe you are using CTRL too much (CTRL-V maybe?) which is not the best way to use vim.
No your reasoning is way off. I map to ctrl rather than escape because I want to make use of the Insert and Ex mode ctrl shortcuts.
For example, if I want to insert a register into the ex mode command line I use ctr-r <register>.
Or if I want to pop out of insert mode for a single command I use ctr-o.
E.g. inserting opening and closing tags when a suitable plugin isn't present. Insert the opening and closing tag, jump back to command mode with ctrl-o, move backwards and you're ready to insert more text.
Can't speak for everyone, but I use this[1] keyboard most of the time, and it doesn't have a Caps Lock key to remap, but instead has Control where Caps Lock normally is. So using ctrl-[ is much easier than reaching up to the escape key.
I'd be VERY interested to hear why that's wrong and what you do differently.