Recently vi-vim-symlink and neovim-symlinks were deleted from the AUR. These are used by a lot of people to set up their systems, and a lot of people want to know why [1]. They do not violate any AUR rules and have been available in the AUR for a very long time, well over 6 years for neovim-symlinks (about the time neovim became a thing) and over a decade for vi-vim-symlink, but I can't date that one as it predates the current AUR system by a long ways. The reason given for this was:
This is more appropriately managed via the user shell's PATH/configuration. This is completely bogus. First off, PATH has nothing to do with anything here. Second, the shell's configuration doesn't work. Making aliases doesn't work when other programs call vi or vim. It doesn't even work for something like `sudo vim`. This is not a substitute in any way.
Just because one TU doesn't find it personally useful or doesn't understand why someone would use a package doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. This is a similar situation to the -bin package issue, except there's not even a rule to misinterpret on this one. If you don't want to use a package, don't, but please don't force your views on everyone. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/u8o31u/why_was_vivimsymlink_from...