I understand your metaphor but I think it's probably a stretch.

Maybe it's better to say the tool has sharp edges that if you aren't familiar with it, can bite you. But with a bit of practise and some knowledge you can master it.

It's not a stretch that practically everybody who accidentally ends up in vim (often because it's git's default editor) ends up googling how to exit the program. It's the tool that you can't even drop by any intuitive action.

Closing the terminal app is pretty intuitive to me.

Restart your computer if all else fails

Maybe also set fire to the computer to make double sure.

Its a terminal program, most people don't know how to deal with those when starting out.

The beginning screen of vim tells you how to exit.

If you do C-c, as normally is the case with TUI programs, Vim also tells you how to leave.

The "I don't know how to exit Vim" is a bit overplayed.

This is true of the original vi but not of moder vim, where both the landing page and the message shown on ctrl+c clearly state how to exit. ctrl+c will also exit insert mode, so you don't need to know about modes or the escape key.

Of course it is possible that one might not think of using ctrl+c, but that's lacking general shell knowledge, not vim knowledge.

At least it forces you to find and read the documentation.

Yes, which “grandpa’s chisel” doesn’t require from you.

Maybe it should. Chisels can be dangerous.