Yeah, I think people keep expecting the iPad to work like a keyboard-monitor personal computer, when it's a totally different workstation, with its very particular all-in-one input device.

Vi(m) was designed too wire your brain to a cursor via a keyboard. Patching the iPad and Vim, Emacs, etc to work on a touch screen feels like missing the point. Kudos to the people behind Swipe and LightTable, who are looking for the next interface paradigm instead.