We may disable obsidian shortcuts while in insert mode
I think that sounds like an extreme idea. That seems like it would mean choosing between Obsidian and Vim functionality. Vim isn’t a plugin I want to keep having to turn off and on.
If that were done, how much functionality would be lost in terms of navigating panes, editing titles, opening sidebars, etc?
we can’t handle all the possible conflicts
Perhaps not. But I think it would be far easier to handle an occasional conflict when and if it arises (this is one single conflict and seems pretty important), rather than introduce the possibility that you need to reimplement all the hotkeys in some Vim Mode equivalent, or disable them all completely.
I propose that ctrl-w as a “delete word” function simply be removed from Vim Insert Mode. As a heavy Vim user, to me it would make more sense to take Vim functionality away from Insert Mode, than to ever take away from Obsidian’s functionality. If Insert Mode basically functioned like regular Obsidian, that would not bother me at all. (Personally speaking of course.)
Normal Mode, Command Line, and Visual Mode are the only important parts of the Vim plugin to me.