From a Lacanian perspective: They do it because the configuration loop itself is the Drive. The 'better working environment' is just the Object a (the carrot on the stick), but the true surplus jouissance is the tinkering itself. It's not about efficiency; it's about the thrill of the chase.
yes and no. you certainly don't have many pre-defined keybindings, but meow tries to not conflict with normal emacs keybindings so you don't need special ones anyway.