>I'm a writer and I'm really good at punctuation and spelling, do I really need to learn how to write a good story?
Vim is a text editor, emacs is a text manipulator. If you never want to do more than copy a rectangle of text from region a to region b then you don't need more than vim. If you want to write tools that fit your workflow you need to know elisp.
For readers, don't think this means you need to be an elisp hacker to benefit from emacs. You don't need to write tools -- there are hundreds already written, and installable as packages. I use emacs to edit code, organize projects, and read my email but I rarely touch elisp.
To anyone reading: don't just be a consumer. There are enough projects made for people who just consume. Emacs is still a project run for people who make stuff with it. Please go somewhere else if you have no interest in building anything.
Imo, no harm in being a consumer. I think every hacker is at some level a consumer. But you will get the most out of emacs if you have a habit of becoming less of a consumer.
Vim is a text editor, emacs is a text manipulator. If you never want to do more than copy a rectangle of text from region a to region b then you don't need more than vim. If you want to write tools that fit your workflow you need to know elisp.