Exactly. I want :w and such to always do what they do. But I also want my assorted helper macros and mappings so I can avoid typing boilerplate code and so on.
NetBeans has a vi plugin, which isn't bad, but I'm forever trying to do things that are only defined in my resource files and plugins, so I end up editing code in vi and using NetBeans for specific tasks (GUI editing, usually).
I can sit down at a new Unix box 25 years in the past or future, and not be frustrated editing a file.