It’s powerful, lightweight, and ubiquitous. If you do sysadmin work, remote into a random machine, and need to update a config file, it probably has vi installed already. It’s also extensible enough to use as a full IDE.
Personally, I like it because of how fast it feels and because I can do everything while keeping my hands on the home row of the keyboard.
Don’t disparage Miss Piggy like that! She has a few blindspots, but she’s generally an honest, intelligent pig. And she would never be a mouthpiece for a fascist administration!