[num1]

I think from a programmer standpoint, I'd prefer to deal with the text directly instead of with some abstract space between characters.

I see your point though, it is different. It does take a little getting used to, but if you slowly teach yourself the motions you'll learn it unconsciously.

As for your example, you're running into this problem because you are manually placing your cursor. If you watch someone who uses vim, they almost never use the keys hjkl, or even x. When you type w to get to the next word, or when you search for something, the cursor will be conveniently placed for whatever kind of deletion you plan on doing. x is for deleting one character, if you ever want to delete more, you move to where you want to start, then use a motion and delete. For more precise control enter visual mode and delete. But never hit x three times in a row and stop to think about whether the cursor is going to shift left or right after the first x.

Vim does have a concept of words, sentences, and paragraphs, but that's because it's not a programming editor, it's a text editor. It also has a concept of lines, braces, parens, and angle brackets. That's because programming is a common text editing exercise :)