I completely disagree; IDEs make more sense on larger projects. Don't get me wrong; none of my IDE's can beat VI's ability to handle large files, and nothing says convenient like an inline diff. When you're working on something that starts to reach the 100+ file mark, I'd rather not rely on a simple editor and my window manager.
A good IDE helps you to organize, track, and maintain your sanity at this scale. In Netbeans 6+, I can jump to a class's declaration, find all usages of a method (regardless of any nasty nesting), and refactor a name change across a project and everything that depends on it. I know where most of my stuff is when I write it, but I find that it can be a NIGHTMARE reviewing a huge project written by a team without sensible documentation.
If you love regular expressions, don't let me stop you, but I think you're missing out.