Have relied on magit for so long now I am not even sure if I "know git" anymore. Definitely can't imagine doing a complicated rebase without it, or (ab)using stashes so much.
Emacs is basically a textual application library (a curses alternative). It's often perceived as a text editor, but not using Magit because it's implemented on Emacs is like not using X because it's implemented on curses
I suspect it’s possible to only learn a few things, e.g. C-g to get unstuck, C-x C-c to quit, some config to have a key to open magit status or a clever bash alias, and then the keys in magit for which there is documentation (regular Emacs is also documented) and semi-documented in that when you e.g. press c to start a commit, a pop up appears with eg flags you can set or commit-like actions like reword/amend.
It's quite linear if you're using the manual / C-h prefix. More like a spiral if you're like me and keep reaching for external packages to solve problems you're not sure you have. Either way it's really worth it.
Emacs with spacemacs or doom-emacs’s spacemacs layer (both lf which use vim bindings aka “evil mode”) is quite similar to vim as far as text editing goes. For me this made the initial learning curve pretty approachable.
Do you happen to know if neovim has a helm-ag analog? For the most part that and magit are the only two things I use in emacs anymore and would love to try something lighter weight.
