Not to detract from your general point - I definitely see the value in using an IDE with a Vim plugin, and often do so myself.
> Vertical scrollbar? Plugin
If you want scrollbars, the right solution is IMO to use a GUI Vim. I often use MacVim which is great, GVim is the obvious alternative on Linux/Windows, and NeoVim has lots of options (including, arguably, VSCode-NeoVim which is also great).
With MacVim, I can pop around randomly in a terminal and open Vim instances that run in the terminal as usual - and if I start editing something for long, I can type :gui to pop up an actual MacVim GUI window. I believe the same works in GVim.
> * Autocomplete code using lsp? Dance with plugins or copy paste literal screens of configs for nvim
I was annoyed by this as well. I then discovered that ALE (the venerable pre-LSP plugin for async linting) now has full LSP support, and it all “just works”. Doesn’t require NeoVim either. Just install the ALE plugin and put LSP servers in $PATH. ALE will find and use them. (By default, it uses standard Vim bindings like C-x C-o for completion, but you can change it.)
> * Want nice looking theme? Plugin! (Gruvbox in my case)
Vim 9.x (not NeoVim) has added a built-in Gruvbox theme named “retrobox” (both light and dark variants based on your background setting). If you don’t have it yet, you can get it as a plugin from here until your Vim updates:
https://github.com/vim/colorschemes
> * Wrap long lines by whole words if possible? No default setting, I guess I need to search for plugin for that too.
There are built-in settings for this, but yeah it requires some initial fiddling to get it nice. (After that initial fiddling, I’ve been annoyed by how word wrap works in any other editor.)
> Vertical scrollbar? Plugin
If you want scrollbars, the right solution is IMO to use a GUI Vim. I often use MacVim which is great, GVim is the obvious alternative on Linux/Windows, and NeoVim has lots of options (including, arguably, VSCode-NeoVim which is also great).
With MacVim, I can pop around randomly in a terminal and open Vim instances that run in the terminal as usual - and if I start editing something for long, I can type :gui to pop up an actual MacVim GUI window. I believe the same works in GVim.
> * Autocomplete code using lsp? Dance with plugins or copy paste literal screens of configs for nvim
I was annoyed by this as well. I then discovered that ALE (the venerable pre-LSP plugin for async linting) now has full LSP support, and it all “just works”. Doesn’t require NeoVim either. Just install the ALE plugin and put LSP servers in $PATH. ALE will find and use them. (By default, it uses standard Vim bindings like C-x C-o for completion, but you can change it.)
> * Want nice looking theme? Plugin! (Gruvbox in my case)
Vim 9.x (not NeoVim) has added a built-in Gruvbox theme named “retrobox” (both light and dark variants based on your background setting). If you don’t have it yet, you can get it as a plugin from here until your Vim updates: https://github.com/vim/colorschemes
> * Wrap long lines by whole words if possible? No default setting, I guess I need to search for plugin for that too.
There are built-in settings for this, but yeah it requires some initial fiddling to get it nice. (After that initial fiddling, I’ve been annoyed by how word wrap works in any other editor.)