I'd say I'm an intermediate+ user of VIM. Its my main text editor and has been for 6 years or so. I use splits extensively, but not as described here.
I basically just do :sp or :vsp to divide the current spit in half vertically or horizontally, and then if I care (rarely) I use C-W H/J/K/L to send one of the windows to the appropriate part of the screen. I also switch windows with arrow keys (mapped to fn+HJKL) and use tabs for "workspaces". I also have a custom bit of vimscript that lets me select and swap splits with <leader>w (I do this more than "moving" splits).
I basically just do :sp or :vsp to divide the current spit in half vertically or horizontally, and then if I care (rarely) I use C-W H/J/K/L to send one of the windows to the appropriate part of the screen. I also switch windows with arrow keys (mapped to fn+HJKL) and use tabs for "workspaces". I also have a custom bit of vimscript that lets me select and swap splits with <leader>w (I do this more than "moving" splits).