Vim has all the tools necessary to achieve the same end result with the same convenience. [0]
Just thinking about what crazy things I've done with macros that multi-cursor would be incapable of handling makes me chuckle.
vim doesn't need the fancy features of other editors (except for maybe LSP and tree-sitter for a more IDE-like experience).
The core problem is that you don't grok vi [1] which is fine, not everyone has time and passion for that. But please don't think for a moment that vim is inferior just because it doesn't blindly copy other editors features.
[0] https://engagor.github.io/blog/2018/02/21/why-vim-doesnt-nee... [1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/1220118
Golfing is not the best representation of day to day text editing, but I must say that optimal Kakoune solutions are usually pretty close to normal workflow.
Both of which neovim has.
Agree with your premise, though: (n)vim does not need multi-cursor selection, for the reasons have given.