Hard disagree. It is not an improvement - it is a deterioration.

Repeat (dot command .) is far more powerful and general thanks to operator->action.

Much better composability with counts, registers, marks and operators with operator->action

Operator Pending mode has some unique advantages for swipe edits that are painful in a select first paradigm. Ex: `d/foo<CR>`. No fast equivalent in Helix.

Also, if you really want, you can select in VIM and do your job too. Use visual mode with `v`.