Hey Nicholas!

 NB> Once I noticed that 'gq' will not only wrap a long line, but will 
 NB> also automatically insert the quote character at the beginning of 
 NB> every line that was wrapped

I am sure that is what mutt does which is what I use for email.  I used to use pine back in the Triassic, whose default editor was pico, which is the grandfather to nano.  I believe it used the same strategy for quoting as vim.  To be honest I prefer the fold/sed quoting seen above which it far more fido-ish as well as bashist as any old hack in-the-know will verify I am sure.

 NB> +mouse_gpm

I would (and do) turn that off using the --disable-gpm to vim's configure.  Same with in mc (mcedit).  That way cutting and pasting from other consoles is vastly more usable.  vim doesn't need no stinkin' mouse.

 NB> Ooh, neat-o!

For sure.  For creating manpages or info files it is a godsend.  As a bonus it works great for dumping information straight into a msg like thus;

 :read !trans -b -no-ansi -t ukrainian "Strong like bull, smart like tractor."
จจจจจจจ, จจ จจจ, จจจจจจจจ, จจ จจจจจจจ.

Gotta love it.

Life is good,
Maurice

 o-  -o    o-   o-   o-   o-   o-   o-   o-  -o    o-  -o    o-   o-   o-  -o
/)    (\  /)   /)   /)   /)   /)   /)   /)    (\  /)    (\  /)   /)   /)    (\
^^    ^^  ^^   ^^   ^^   ^^   ^^   ^^   ^^    ^^  ^^    ^^  ^^   ^^   ^^    ^^
... Fidonet 4K - You load sixteen penguins and what do you get?
--- GNU bash, version 5.2.37(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)