I use NeoVim, not Helix, but I think it's more about sane defaults then the amount of customization. Out of the box NeoVim is just a basic modal text editor and not much more. You have to dive in and start configuring to get the real power out of it.

Helix does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

Also, as a side note, I feel like trying to use someone else's config in NeoVim is a path to madeness.