Mickey from Mastering Emacs has a post, Why Emacs has Buffers, that considers why Emacs makes the buffer concept one of its signal concepts. After all, he says, the natural construct when a programmer thinks of an editor is the string. The lines that you see on the screen are just strings and (text) files can be viewed as just a collection of strings.
Buffers, on the other hand, seem more abstract and unnatural. Mickey says they don’t evoke the same familiar associations as terms like “file” or “document” do. Of course, that’s a little overwrought. Any Emacs user, let alone programmer, who has a hard time with the concept of a buffer probably needs to find another occupation. Still, it’s worth considering why bringing the buffer concept to the forefront instead of burying
it in the internals as most editors do is the right thing and that’s what Mickey does.
One of the things the “modernize Emacs” nebbishes want to do is replace buffers with tabs. Not because tabs are better but just because they’re used to them. Of course, buffers are a much more general concept that includes things that are not files. You could, I suppose, make a tab for each buffer but that’s not want the nebbishes want: they want one tab per file just like they’re used to. I know I’m waving my cane at the kids on my lawn but—really—if you aren’t willing to put in a little effort to learn the Emacs way, please go away. If you are willing to put in that effort, welcome. There are plenty of people here willing to help you learn.
As always, any post from Mickey is worth spending a few minutes reading. Spend a few minutes to check it out.