alt Hacker NewsWhy? What makes Spacemacs so different/special that it requires some kind of distinct opinion that would be extremely valuable? Spacemacs is the same old Emacs with some out-of-the box customizations atop - there's nothing fundamentally different about it.
Searched by tags and found author may try Evil [1], but unsure if they followed through.
You're right Spacemacs is essentially a batteries-included version of Emacs.
[1] https://nullprogram.com/blog/2017/04/01/