Playing Vimgolf is different from using Vim normally to edit text. You can spend hours finding an impractical way to save a single stroke on a basic task. Vimgolf is 100% planning and 0% execution. There are no typos. If you're entering your solution and you mess up, you start over and get it right. Finding the perfect solution is difficult and rewarding.
Planning a solution involves a different workflow than regular text editing. If you start the vimgolf client, type the first thing that comes to mind, and call it good, you'll get terrible scores. My workflow honestly isn't that good, but when I talk to other players about theirs, my reaction is usually, "You do WHAT?!". So maybe I have something to share.