Sure, but the question is if the physical and mental context-switch is worth this benefit. I'd say that in editors with a sufficiently expressive keyboard interface like vim, it is not.
One thing I still find myself doing in vim is using the scroll wheel. Browsing and editing is a context switch anyway and I think scroll wheels express scrolling a lot better than keyboards ever can.
Fair enough. I would definitely err on the side of vim when it comes to the benefits of staying within vim's 'mental model', because I do agree the context-switch does matter.
Furthermore, the fact that all my vim-context keypresses can be stored as a 'macro' in itself has provided enough of a productivity increase to make it all worth it. And this is even the case in less-than-perfect vim emulators.
And I do agree that for some things, scrolling and perhaps 'exploring' in general being a big one, a mouse can be worth the context switch.
One thing I still find myself doing in vim is using the scroll wheel. Browsing and editing is a context switch anyway and I think scroll wheels express scrolling a lot better than keyboards ever can.