Control C.

Try that in less. Or Emacs. Or Nano. Or Pico. Or ed.

Doesn't work there, either. Most of those don't even offer advice on how to exit when you hit that combo, do they?

So, how is Ctrl-C the right answer then?

Wasn't Ctrl-C used for something in vim ;)

What interactive terminal programs exit using ^C? Nano doesn't, top doesn't. There is no standard for interactive terminal programs. Furthermore ^C doesn't fit with the rest of vim's control schema, so you wouldn't really be doing anybody any favors in the long run.

Funnily enough, emacs doesn't either.