I've been using and administering linux machines for decades and I can't remember ever using emacs. I still only know the real basics of vi - how to insert/delete and most importantly how to save and quit or quit without saving. Anything requiring more manipulation (even copy/pasting), I switch to something like Geany instead.

The point of learning vi is that it's nearly always available, even on a broken system and is often a key part of fixing broken systems, so learning the basics of it is more or less essential. Not even just Linux - I've had to bring up vi on an ancient HP-UX system once to get it to boot.