Maybe you could apply several `colorcolumn` markers, possibly every 10 characters to aid in parsing the verticality?
`:set cc=10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90`
Might have to change your highlights/colours so it's a bit more subtly, likely theme dependent.
:exec &rnu? "set nu nornu" : "set nonu rnu"
I wish there were vertical line numbers, though. Usually I just eyeball letter jumps (so rather than 7l I'll end up doing 10lhhh).
In practice, I can't say I've ever felt like moving the cursor around takes up an appreciable amount of time. If it does, then it is probably the case that I'm trying to do something manually that would be better macro-ized.