Helix boast itself as a no config tool, but you have to find a lsp, installl it, edit a toml to activate it. I dont think we can call that "config less".
Success would be something like LazyVim but without the nagging of updates each time you open it.
I think most people in the target audience for either editor wouldn't mind a bit of tinkering. The difference is in basically building your own setup from the ground up with plugins and config files vs starting with a reasonably featureful setup OOTB that you can then tweak to your liking.
I use LazyVim and it works pretty well. But whenever I want to change some small aspect of its behaviour it takes a while to get familiar with the right part of the configuration. And if an update were to break it tomorrow I'm not sure how easily I could put it back together.
I am whole off the vim (&friends) trend but my 2c-
The helix situation is still miles better for up and running asap compared to dancing with files/lua on lazyvim. Just having to refer to docs to install a plugin, writing sane remaps etc eats up time. If you really just speedrun everything under an hour good for you. But for the rest, a lsp is a one package manager install away (even on windows scoop seems to have become the de facto), editing a toml is much easier than fiddling with the lua api/vimscript "just" to set some variables.
(Not a helix user though I have tried both vim/nvim/helix)
The only problem for me was the keybindings work good unless my vim instincts kick in where I become slow. The other one was lack of plugins.
I agree with all you said. Its an improvment over nvim situation. I still think for common languages like python and markdown lsp should be setup by default. I am not sure if i am willing to forget all the muscle memory I have just yet.
Also I miss being able to ZZ to exit my file
I don't know about LazyVim but my LSP configuration in Neovim is really simple:.
Use Mason to install the LSP server (just type :LspInstall or use the Mason UI) that will then activate automatically and reuse an existing configuration from lsp-config.
