Multi-cursor is more flexible than rectangular selection. You can skip or delete words of varying length etc. It is certainly less powerful than vim macro and regex, but it's easy to use because
1) there are less shortcuts to remember
2) no need to think too much like figuring out regex for simple tasks
3) it gives instant feedback
As for regexps, the syntax in Emacs is hell, but I do know Emcacs has very powerful edit/replace tools.