Auto indent, tab, and shift tab are your friends. Really, it isn't that bad, considering the curly brace alternative is even worse from an effort perspective.

Perhaps I misunderstand, but vim, not a particularly uncommon editor, treats backspace at the start of a line by removing one indent level.

So, you're at `b`, you hit enter: next line, same indent level. Now you hit backspace: indent level matches `if`. Again: indent level matches `for`. Type c, there it is.

If you had curly braces, you'd use } instead of backspace. Literally the same number of keystrokes, no?

Or were you talking about something else and did I misunderstand?

How did you end up with c there, honestly? It's not a thing that's ever happened to me.