I'll second these emotions. But more important to me than gnuclient and dired-mode are:

1. shell
2. shell-command-on-region
3. apropos-command, and info

There's more, but these are the main features that, to my admittedly limited knowledge, aren't to be found in any of the .*vi.* editors.

I appreciate the desirability of .*vi.* for its small size and ubiquity, but for a fast loading, small editor I use JOE (jmacs, actually).

-- Frag.