New / different VIM for Debian?

On both my new Debian and Raspberry Pi: VIM version 9.0.1499 This vim is quite different and irksome to a user of the version that's been "standard issue" on Fedora for over a decade now. The current version I'm using is: version 9.0.1872 The biggest issue is insert mode. I'm used to just cursoring where I want to go and continuing on. But in this version doing that just creates a lot of stuff (surely they're improperly interpreted escape characters that represent the cursor keys I'm typing) that has to then be deleted after, of course, escaping out of it and start a new insert. It's a HUGE time sink. ... There are likely other less obvious differences I haven't tripped over yet - I'm a newbie to both Debian and R. Pi. Moving over my personal .vimrc hasn't helped. It COULD be just a .vimrc issue - I'm ignorant about what impact that might have. So, I'm unsure how to proceed. ... nano just doesn't do it for me, too slow! I guess it's like anything else; familiarity! So... New version? Different vimrc contents? If so what cures this insert problem? I presume it's new-version time, but if so, what version?