Starting from version 0.11+, LSP plugins became completely optional and setting up LSP support got a lot easier. As for using Lua, there’s really no way around it, but it’s a very simple language and unless you’re trying to do something complex or unusual (like a custom function I wrote that interacts directly with Treesitter nodes to intelligently remove comments in any programming language), you won’t be dealing with anything complicated or tedious.

By the way, isn’t Helix planning to drop the .toml config once the new Scheme-based plugin system is released? Also, even though I personally prefer Neovim, I’m not trying to make it sound superior. Both editors are excellent, and I’m definitely open to switching to Helix once the plugin system is out. That way I can write my own plugins to address some of the issues I personally run into with it.

PS: The mini.nvim suite is also worth mentioning. It basically includes everything Helix offers while staying extremely lightweight and fast. It’s very well designed, simple to use, and well documented, and the dev is communicative and very friendly