I can’t seem to turn off Vintage mode. I already have “Vintage” under “ignored_packages” in my ~/.config/sublime-text-2/Packages/Default/Preferences.sublime-settings, but if I press ESC, I still get command mode.

(Also, restarting sublime text doesn’t help.)

Put it in your user config, not the default one.

A bit late, but I just ran into this same problem.

Possible solution that worked for me: I had another package installed that improved the Vintage/vim emulation. Vintageous, I think. Once I removed that additional package & restarted Sublime it worked as normal again

@jaydorsey, your suggestion worked for me.