If you really want to see the advantage of keyboard hotkeys just look at the top Starcraft players. Yes they still use their mouse but they need hotkeys to even be able to compete at that level. They actually measure the number of actions they can execute per minute! There's no way it can be done only with either just the mouse or keyboard
I think software development also falls into this category. Some hotkeys are at least an order of magnitude faster. And 90% of the time hotkeys will be faster. But in some cases you absolutely need to use your mouse, it's just much faster.
Here's a YouTube video that discusses what it takes to be a competitive Starcraft player and shows them entering actions: https://youtu.be/zmYhX8fjmo8
As a heavy keyboard user I have to agree. I've been using vim extensively and also use vim bindings for my browsers, without them navigation feels constrained. Obviously I still use the mouse for some tasks and certain types of text selection are much easier with a mouse then a keyboard for me.
I'd say that is heavily dependent on personal workflow and taskset.
> Obviously I still use the mouse for some tasks and certain types of text selection are much easier with a mouse then a keyboard for me.
Like Starcraft, the best thing the mouse is for is box selection. Everything else is done with keys.
And for actually pointing at things.
My brain doesn't "point" at something in Vi motions, not matter how much I try. Maybe some people manage to rewire their brains, I haven't. Despite using Vi/Vim for a long time.
Then there's also the ability of vim and emacs to quickly and precisely select text objects like words, paragraphs, functions, etc (even when they may span more than one screen). There's just no way a mouse can be anywhere near as fast as doing that for larger objects, and using the mouse is much more error-prone.