I've bound CTRL to Capslock and don't have much problems with it. Given that in emacs you have dired, magit, org, org-babel and now ghostel (and many more) I can't think of any more ergonomic way in using my computer. I have all my plugins like flash-jump or gptel available everywhere, it's amazing.

Easy fix, and better than Caps-Ctrl in my opinion: swap Lalt and Lctrl. That way ctrl is under your left thumb, alt under your right. No need for pinkies at all.

You can use software like Kanata to accomplish this if you don't have a programmable keyboard.

You can use "evil mode" for Vi-like bindings if you prefer. There are a number of Emacs "distributions" like Spacemacs and Doom Emacs which come preconfigured for Vi-like editing.

Funnily enough, I am the opposite: I tried Vim, but I preferred the "pinky shenanigans" of Emacs to reduce trying to figure out what mode I was in to just edit files.

many people use homerow mods, but I haven't tried them personally.

if you happen to use a thinkpad and don't use the trackpoint, you can remap the two mouse buttons above the trackpad to ctrl and alt using keyd on linux. this completely solved RSI on my laptop.

> but the emacs pinky shenanigans are such a turn-off

I've never had this. I'm either lucky, or I know to use both Ctrl keys on the keyboard.

If you're typing C-x, you should use the right control key. The standard ergonomics advice is to use both hands when doing multiple key combinations.

Also, just use the usual cursor keys for navigation!

> but the emacs pinky shenanigans are such a turn-off

Do you touch type? You’re meant to use the modifier keys on the opposite side (so use both hands) rather than stretching your pinky to press them. Also there are packages such as god-mode which help.

But the most helpful thing is doing navigation by page instead of line which reduce the use of keybindings.