I'm in the same boat, but I use miniconda and install the individual packages I want as I need them, which helps minimize the size. For doing scientific analysis, it is really nice to have (basic) environment which has the basic required packages (matplotlib, numpy, scipy, ipython, etc.) from which I can duplicate and build off of. It works well with VSCode, and unlike other comments, I don't really see any negatives to the CLI. For someone who started not even programming a lot, to doing this in a scientific context (so potentially less rigorous with regards to how things should be perfectly set up, but where it is necessary that they are functional), this was by far the easiest and least complex way to set up all the stuff you need to get started.