> a modal editor that does selection first (not vim) instead of action so you get a preview of what you will delete before hitting it, you can also expand it.

This is pretty much what Visual mode does. V4jd is

* V: enter visual line mode. * 4j: select the next four lines (in addition to this one) * d: delete.

The selection is highlighted before the delete command, you can change the selection range, etc.

I use visual mode to replace stuff all the time: V10j:s/foo/bar/g It even shows the changes interactively.