There are a lot of differences between the two but the basic concept is pretty much the same in all NLEs. Could I edit in Premiere? Yes. Could I edit as fast in Premiere? No. There are many things to watch out for in Premiere. One big one for me is simply creating crossfades. You can’t just overlap two events. You have to push them together and then add a transition to crossfade. The process adds frames from the end of the first clip and the beginning of the second clip to create the transition so you always have to be careful of your “heads” and “tails” on your clips. Where I VEGAS I trim to just where I want it and then just overlap the events.
Premiere also has a scripting option but, in my opinion, it is not quite as good as the scripting option in VEGAS.
But, Premiere has some features I like too. It’s all in what you get used to and which suits your workflow best. If you need to learn it for a job – learn it. Otherwise, I’d stick with VEGAS.