Step 4 (for me) was realizing that all of these plugins to solve small individual problems were just a bunch of cruft. Especially when you use these plugins, mapings, or remappings (I did that a lot) to hide from learning all of the vanilla movements. So, I still use plugins, but I use them to solve things that I cannot myself solve. Or deal with major vim deficiencies that I just don't want to mess with. And focus my attention on grokking 'help' to learn more abscure movements.
Oh, and mappings/macros are awesome in cases were you want solve specific problems in less moves. I use macros to test out my ideas. I sometimes then make them a mapping. That isn't often, but when I do that, it's because they are general and needed enough.