> Here's the thing, the best part about it vim is that it is not slow (plus paired with a terminal emulator like kitty/wez/alacritty). When I type the characters actually appear on the screen as I type them.

I just noticed that ~/.vimrc adds a small delay, even if it is empty. This is the test case:

Create a file with about 10 emtpy lines and type:

    esc                 switch to normal mode
    gg                  go to the top
    ctrl + v, G         select all lines
    shift + i           switch to insert mode
    - line              just type something
    esc                 this will duplicate the first line until the end of the file

If you repeat the test case with no ~/.vimrc, you will notice that the lines are changed faster.