I own an M8 (and also, happen to be a vim user lol) and it's sorta true, but it feels a lot more natural if you're familiar with the LSDJ-style workflow. LSDJ is a DAW built for the GameBoy so was working with very constrained hardware. Both are derived from sequencer workflows, but I'm not quite sure which or where those originated.

That being said, the M8 workflow isn't all that bad, but it's definitely less visual than most other DAWs.