... Alright, I'll take the bait.
> Even on a very capable PC Sublime Text still runs circles around Code for raw performance.
If this were an issue in my day-to-day I wouldn't be recommending it. VS Code performance is fine, even when searching through large logfiles.
> on the other hand it does also feel like they just ripped off ST devs' work.
Are you comparing the products out of the box, or are you comparing Sublime with ton of extensions installed?
When I posted my first comment in this thread, the headline was that ligature support is finally stable. That wasn't even available in an unstable form until several months, maybe a year, after it was in VS Code.
VS Code comes with a built-in terminal, Sublime struggles to do this even with extensions.
VS Code has VCS support built-in, throw in Git Lens and Sublime plugins don't even come close.
Speaking of Git Lens, the Code Lens feature in general is really convenient for a surprising number of things. Chasing references is what it does by default but I really like having a little complexity indicator above functions.
VS Code has a builtin debugger with language plugins for all sorts of environments. One interface to learn, rather than jumping between them.
VS Code intellisense is far smarter in my experience than you can get in Sublime with any plugins. Bonus is that you get Emmet builtin, but that's available everywhere.
And don't forget that VS Code is where the language server protocol comes from, so new languages can support a variety of editors with a single server, often times written with the same codebase that compiles/interprets that language.
You can use whatever editor you want, it doesn't bother me. I like Sublime, I've purchased multiple personal licenses and don't regret the investment. But to say that VS Code is just a ripoff of Sublime is unreasonable.