Linux users are more likely to be programmers and even if they aren't they often edit dotfiles (configuration) or write simple scripts to automate workflow. I also think Linux users just have a tendency to shop around until they settle on a favorite piece of software, even distro hopping is quite common.

Notepad is reeeally barebones, and that can be a good thing.

Check out Notepad++ if you ever need to work with text data more than just skimming a README file. You will see what these people mean.

Nothing really. Kate does a lot of stuff. If you’re not a software developer, it doesn’t really matter. Different text editors have differing levels of support for various programming languages and some people like all the key bindings so they don’t have to take their hands off the mouse.

But if you’re just editing plain text and you’re not a keyboard only kind of user, it doesn’t really matter.

What am I missing out on by not trying out different editors?

Linux and Unix systems have historically always been designed to be easily configured and controlled with human-readable text files. Most apps you use on Linux can be scripted. So the better you get at using every-day Linux/Unix apps, the more you might want to tweak them to make it easier for you to use. To do this, you need to learn a little bit about how to write configuration files, and how to write simple scripts. This also helps you to automate things on your computer more easily, since all applications can talk to all other applications using a human-readable programming language. For managing all of this, a good editor is extremely helpful.

When you take things to the extreme, you can start using Emacs, which contains an entire Lisp programming environment for manipulating text. You can replace all of your configuration and scripts with a single programming language (Emacs Lisp). And Emacs can replace almost every single app on your computer where text is involved, from simple scripting and configuration all the way up to web browsing, chat, and email.

I never understood why people liked Notepad++ so much. I always just used Notepad for simple text file editing and quick notes so I didn't see the point.

But I recently switched to POP!_OS and the text editor has lots of features Notepad doesn't have (such as line numbers, indentation, and I can select the (programming) language I am writing the document in) and I found myself really liking these features.

I'm probably one of those weirdos who use VSCode, Kate, Nano, and sometimes KWrite all in their different niches.

I do most of my programming work in VSCode, but most of my shell scripting in Kate. When I edit configuration files, I'm usually using the command line and thus use Nano (sorry, I'm too stupid to use either Emacs nor Vim, let alone Vi). When I'm just looking at text files (or doing a quick edit) via my file manager, I use KWrite. With the exception of VSCode, they're all provided in my installation by default.

Having said that, trying out different editors will enable you to pick the editor that better fits your requirements. Kate is too powerful for what I use it for, but since it's already there, the additional features are nice to have. I actually had to explore a bit before I‌ settled on VSCode for my programming work, and while there's probably one that better fits my needs, my workflow has already adapted to working with what I currently have.

Different workflows and plug ins.

It's worth noting that you can install Kate on Windows too if you want to https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9NWMW7BB59HW

Yeah, I use Kate for everything from quick notes to coding. Or nano. They are simple 🤷

I use vim btw

Nothing, it's mostly just weird people being obsessed with not using anything with a gui.