I agree, vi and vim have a very steep learning curve. And it took me years before I ditched nano or joe for vim.
But once you are you used to it, you will love it. It's so powerful and extendible!
If you want to learn vim, run vimtutor on the commandline, it's part of the vim package.
Or follow the online interactive Vim tutorial.
Good luck!
PS: :x is short for :wq. ;) ZZ in command mode is even shorter.
Thanks, will definitely check out the vimtutor command. Each day I'm finding more commands to use and do my job quicker. Will do my first RHSA exam later this year!