Have you stuck with Doom/Space and evil key bindings or been pulled over to a more vanilla setup?
I've stuck with it so far (over 3 years in). I've learned a few Emacs-isms (M-x is indispensable) but it's pretty convenient to press space and be presented with a list of choices if I've forgotten certain key bindings.
I'm unlikely to give up evil with ~25 years of Vi/Vim muscle memory, but I'm open to trying other systems in the future. Since Vi/Vim operations are verb -> object, the advantages of object -> verb commands are tempting so one can see the target of a command before it's actual execution. The Vim workaround is invoking visual mode, of course.
Obviously with vanilla Vim, you're going to have to memorize everything and I eventually did that way back when. Being presented with the key bindings menu helps to remind me of things that I use less frequently and avoids time spent digging into the help system.
Sorry for the slow reply (but then my HN replies are never guaranteed either).
For me it was org mode (with evil mode because I was coming from 15+ years of Vim). Then..
"Oh, I can manage files and edit a directory like a file buffer.."
"Oh, I can SSH into systems and edit files but it doesn't even feel like SSH.."
"Oh, this makes a great, distraction free IDE.."
I recommend a batteries included distro like Doom Emacs or Space Emacs.