going between insert and normal modes (i and esc),
undoing (u from normal mode),
and saving (:w and :wq).
Don't try to do it all at first, just get comfortable with the essentials. You can even just stay in insert mode (the only mode in most editors) at first.
Keep a vim basics cheat sheet handy for a couple weeks as you're building in muscle memory, then slowly work in more advanced techniques and combinations.
It doesn't take long before you start having a lot of fun just manipulating text.
I became a fan after I got used to nice color schemes, buffers/tabs, horizontal/vertical splitting, file browsing with NERDTree and highlighting changes with GITGutter.
You ask for tips? Add VIM commands you use regularly (like paste mode toggle for example) to a keyboard shortcut (like leader key + p) in your .vimrc settings file. It increases working speed.
Also add some plugins, they are fun and add useful functions from other editors like Sublime (ctrl-p, vim-multiple-cursors).
There are plenty of cheat sheets online. The main thing is understanding that there are different modes, knowing what they do, and how to switch between them and issue commands.
The first time I used VI I typed a few characters, then hit backspace to delete some characters. Backspace doesn't delete characters. I closed VI and never opened it again.
I'm very happy. I had the same early experience as you, but I kept with it. I've been using it several years now. When I'm forced back to vim, my fingers remember just enough, but I have to undo pretty often.
It's a text editor. It all began with the ed editor, which is very simple and does one thing, it edits files. Then someone extended it into the ex editor. Then someone added a new feature: being able to visually see the file you're editing, which became vi, the visual editor. Then someone improved that, into vim. What began as an editor where you needed to be fluent in regular expressions but otherwise was simple, is now a very complex editor, moving the functionality of the old UNIX tools into the editor itself.
The same arguments about learning vi/vim/neovim holds for ed. It's not intuitive, you need to get used to it, you need to learn, etc. People choose not to learn vim for the same reason vim users don't want to learn ed.