The learning curve is not so steep, as long as you don't try to learn ALL OF EMACS upfront. Just start using it for your basic editing, learn how to open/save files, how to navigate, buffer management, as you go. When you need something more specific, you can easily look it up in the great in-built documentation. You can also use something like Doom, which simplifies more advanced setups, and adds to discoverability (press the leader key, and you get a set of options for what else you can do from there).

It's the same with Vim, if you learn how to do basic editing, the rest comes along easily, as you need it. (remember "ESC :q!", though :) )