The catalyst
VS Code kept getting slower. Extensions fighting each other. Telemetry I couldn't disable. The final straw was a 3-second startup time on a MacBook Pro.
The learning curve
Two weeks of pain, then muscle memory kicks in. The modal editing model clicks once you stop thinking about it and start feeling it.
What I miss
The debugger UI. That's genuinely it. Everything else — file navigation, search, Git integration — is either equal or better in Neovim with the right plugins.