Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been using Emacs for 25 years, and I use a stock install and I never even touch the .emacs file. It's just a text editor. For many tasks it has better usability than the competition. This is why I use it. (Not for everything, though, and that's okay.) I'd guess most people are like me. Configuring text editors is not our hobby.
> It's just a text editor. I'll never understand comments like this. There's a full Lisp implementation available in there. Other text editors don't come with org-mode, either.
... I really just use it as an editor/IDE these days, and couldn't be happier.
Emacs is how I learned LISP which forever transformed me as a programmer and I'm grateful. But let's be clear WHY I was doing that: it was horrible as an IDE at the time and I needed it to do the thing.
Now, with elpa, great themes, solid modes for every major language, magit etc, it just works. I customize ... via customization.
I still have my .emacs (dating myself there) and a few nifty functions I wrote. I maintain a programming language, so pact-mode is still there. The ugly truth there is that it's actually easier to write integrations (for a LISP-like no less!) for VS Code than write a major mode.
I miss hacking on emacs but I'm more productive for it.