Yes but emacs was for more popular than vim for awhile.

Plus there are many advances to doing figures in LaTeX - such as the ability to have you math typeset the same way as in non figures.

And because the shell utilities are more versatile and often better.

LaTeX is not slow or inconsistent.

You only need to run it multiple times if you use features that require it, and that is because one pass generates code to be read in a second pass.

The syntax is not ugly. It's a macro programming language.

If you don't like use vim (or emaca with AucTeX) to write it, look at LaTeXila - it's pretty good. If on Windows, notepad++ is also free and has excellent support for LaTeX.

Um, I've never heard of SublimeText. I like vim because it is cake to ssh into a server and quickly / efficiently modify a text file.

And there is nothing shameful about developers accomodating my desire to use a command-line text editor to create/edit TeX files in whatever terminal I am using.

Normally I create / edit TeX using LaTeXila but it is fanstatic that I can do so with vim and when I don't have access to LaTeXila I use vim for TeX editing, and I am quite glad I can.

With software that works in a standard shell environment, I can ssh into a networked computer from my Android tablet (Better Terminal Emulator Pro and Hackers Keyboard) and do actual work. Far more convenient than carrying my laptop everywhere and also faster than checking out source, firing up a GUI, and then committing the source.

Terminals ARE good technology and we would be worse off without them.