I think we just don't agree about what the good parts of vim are. I find f and t to be a minute improvement over forward search. I think hjkl is strictly better than arrow keys, because you don't have to move your fingers from the home row to navigate a file, and I think the basic editing commands I outlined are sufficient for a superior editing experience within a day of learning them, no deep study required.
Forward search is probably my most used vim feature. /LOCATION<enter>c/NEXT_LOCATION<enter> and you can be in insert mode changing the content. The only thing you need to think about is the content you want to change. You don't think about how to get there, you don't think about how many times you need to hit arrow while holding down shift-alt, or the fact that it will always jump one too far and you'll need to shift-leftarrow back one.
Let me clarify, I absolutely love hjkl, and couldn't live without it (seriously - I built scripts just so the computer will always have hjkl as arrow keys, and many other vim goodies).
I just feel like it's a thing that people don't realize will help until they internalize it. Whereas almost everyone I show the text objects to immediately realizes their utility. I'm only looking at this from a pedagogical perspective.
i'm sure it becomes intuitive with lots of use, bit i find it awkward with having to move my finger off the home keys to move left. somehow for me, its even more confusing that way. where as my arrow keys are completely intuitive, one finger for the left and right keys and the middle finger handles up down. to me its not a big deal to remove my fingers from the home row if i already have to move from the home keys.
