I think the two concerns I stated are probably legit, but this one is boring to me. Vim is nicer than less for reading files. I have more navigation commands. I can yank part of the file and save it somewhere else. I can pipe a range of lines through awk/etc. I can switch between files. I can split my screen. Etc. Some of these are probably available in less too (more than more(1) supported in 2001), but I doubt all, and I already know the commands in vim. I'm interested in not clobbering my logs and not crashing the server, but if you tell me vim is an editor not a viewer, I'll ask Why?

Btw re-reading my words I don't mean to sound combative. But the point of my original question was to understand. I've been cargo-culting "use less for logs" for 14 years already.