Bleank

Is it correct that the escape key is currently bound to closing the program? At least that's what it does for me.

Escape is by convention for escaping from some action that you're performing and not for closing a whole program. I suggest to keep it that way. E.g. I use it to close pop up windows in all programs that I use, and I've accidentally closed Black Ink a couple of times already while trying that :P

You are right you close Black Ink when you press escape.
When it will be possible to customize shortcuts you'll be able to change it.