> This is bad when I'm using it as the editor for something like git commit, which will fail if $EDITOR returns nonzero.

I got hit by this so often and never knew the reason. At least I know who's to blame now.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66283714/how-can-i-force...

explicitly using vim (rather than the vi alias) is supposed to give the return code behavior you prefer.

Thank you! That actually explains everything.