It's sad to hear you had that initial experience. The person who got me into Vim recommended more or less what your friend did: start by getting a setup similar to my current editor, except with Pandora's Box just an Esc away. Then let curiosity run its course.

This is definitely what I recommend to people curious about Vim, and also what I recommend to people curious about functional programming. Saying "Here, start with Category Theory" is a great way to get a purely imperative programmer to stay that way.