I do not find this to be the case. But then, there are various keyboard commands, both in Vim and on the command line, that I do not really have to call to mind before using. I just type them when needed.
It’s really weird how that works, actually, how with many things (I’ve noticed this with GUI interfaces, too) the mind will learn it to the point where you don’t need the conscious part of you to be aware of it anymore.
So I think this is really about what we’re most used to, what our mind has adapted to. I feel very clumsy if I’m editing in something other than Vim, because that’s what I’ve adapted to.
For a time, I had gotten used to typing correct apostrophes and quotes ( ‘ ” “ ), such that I could no longer automatically type a ' or ". I had to think about those primes if those were what I wanted, although the quotes are certainly harder to type.
So what am I saying here? I guess I’m saying that we can’t rely on our own experience too heavily — whichever interface we find we have to think more to use may be far more natural for another, and all of that may be entirely irrelevant from an objective standpoint.
However, the cognitive load of this distraction is lower than that of having to remember keyboard commands.
Once you have spent a certain amount of time in EMacs, (a very long time) most of those keyboard interactions will become subconscious. Its a long time though. Also, the most frequently used keyboard commands are available in the GUI interface for people that choose to learn them. And environments like Visual Studio are often fully customizable, enabling users to add their own keyboard shortcuts, macros, etc.
One feature in most GUI environments that you may not have discovered is the 'Tool Tip'. By hovering your mouse cursor over various toolbar buttons you can cause a short textual description to appear.