I don't disagree with that last sentence, but even acknowledging that, getting a whole lot more editing done in a whole lot less time, using significantly less keystrokes, makes for a much more enjoyable (and almost by extension: more productive) working experience. Not many things in programming are as soul-sucking as repeatedly having to bash the same keys or mousing and clicking around to translate your thoughts into working code. I think you are really underestimating the usefulness of some of the things you can only do with command-mode editors such as vim, if you think their only merit is saving a few seconds of typing.

It's not about saving time per se, it's about saving context switches and wasted brain cycles.