Earlier quoted context omitted.
I learned to give up making things exactly to my liking and learn to use the default key bindings. Now I can log into any machine and be 100% productive.
I consider myself a power Emacs user, I have a sizeable Emacs configuration, but when I connect to servers, I just use vi. Simpler, faster, less fuss.
Edit: mg is an emacs-like editor that is even leaner than vi, has off course the same key bindings as emacs, and also shares the same openbsd roots as tmux. It is also the default editor in openbsd.