I know exactly what you mean. Approximately everyone uses Inkscape in practice, but I too have had occasion to go into gvim and edit the Inkscape SVG by hand. I will say that it really helps to know what's going on, but having to is less than ideal.
("approximately everyone" to the point where Wikimedia occasionally considers just using Inkscape-as-a-service as the SVG renderer instead of rsvg, for best quirk-compatibility.)
("approximately everyone" to the point where Wikimedia occasionally considers just using Inkscape-as-a-service as the SVG renderer instead of rsvg, for best quirk-compatibility.)