dotfiles VS kakoune-wakatime

I use NeoVim. I used Vim previously and just know the built in basics very well.

NeoVim incorporating Lua as a first class language has allowed plugin authors to build plugins that are faster and better than plugins for Vim written in VimScript (or other languages like python/typescript which are much slower).

There is a strong community for neovim on reddit, youtube, etc and plugin authors do a nice job of building tools that work with each other.

Setting it up I agree is a pain, but once done its very little maintenance/work. Even when I've had to 'redo' my setup (eg swithing package managers like vim plug to packer to lazy) its been easy and under 15 or so minutes.

I edit minor things in my config every few months. Everything flows quite nicely now and breaking changes are far less common than they used to be (at least among the plugins I use).

My vim config if you're curious (along with the rest of my dotfiles): https://github.com/sbernheim4/dotfiles/tree/master/vim

Mine's not very bare bones, but its also not massive. I like to think it's decently set up and readable. Hopefully its possible for you to use some parts: https://github.com/sbernheim4/dotfiles

I thought nobody used Kakoune anymore... maybe I'll go ahead and fix the bugs in the Kakoune WakaTime plugin https://github.com/WhatNodyn/kakoune-wakatime.