Not having Escape where CapsLock sits on a new machine already makes it infuriatingly unusable already :)

ZMK (or it's free software cousin QMK) are super flexible and you can create lots of custom behaviors for keys (tap/hold behaviors, double press, layering, etc...). It takes some time and effort to learn how to set it all up. Some of the more complicated behaviors require using their dsl for mapping the keys instead of their GUI editor. Considering the ridiculous amount of hours I spend at my computer using a keyboard, I felt it was worth the investment in learning.

<Esc>:w<CR>

I could just have it escape instead without saving.

If I hadn’t chose jj it would have been ff, which is also always under an index finger. I do wish I’d been clued into the idea when I started with Vim instead of two years later.

I either put CapsLock where Escape sits or use both shifts simultaneously (one cancels it) but even then I almost never use it. The rare times I need to type a lot of uppercase together is generally code in vim and visual selection + gU does the job.

The point of my comment was not to shill for a particular solution though but for the vim community to acknowledge the problem publicly instead of it being some insider knowledge you discover in a random internet comment six months into fighting vim (if you haven't dropped out yet)

I do jk as I always find a roll easier on the fingers than a double-tap jj or kk. You could also use space provided you aren't using one of those distros that bases its identity on the spacebar.

No but really, vim's paradim that you should go back to normal mode constantly. With the current situation you get posts on the vim subreddit asking/telling you about insert mode editing commands. You might as well use Emacs at that point, at least it would be the intended workflow

But again my point is that the default sucks. You probably learned a about Ctrl + [ while looking online for alternatives after realizing the default sucked