When you have a ton of similar lines of code which need to be edited in parallel, lining them up lets you edit all of them in one keystroke. Saves me quite a lot of annoying editing in the long run, actually.
When you have a ton of similar lines of code, you'd better start thinking about templates or mixins :P
Also, in regard of "new approach" to programming - is there a single method of interaction out there that is more efficient than plain text? It is kind of descriptive that we have so many different Desktop Environments and power users still prefer terminal everywhere.
