1. is not bad, continuous visual feedback is awesome and more ergonomic that switching to a "counting" mental mode, especially for shorter distances (of which 4 is a part) 3. similarly, it's just a deficiency in vim that 3yy is invisible, so using a command that provides visual feedback is superior. Maybe try to fit a Shift-V to a non-modifier keybind, and depending on how ESC is convenient, a better exit would also be nice