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Why not just remove it from the source code?

Given the frequency of updates, maintaining a privacy fork with anything but minor changes would be a Sisyphean task.

Which is exactly what I'd expect from a privacy fork.

How about we contribute back the changes needed?

You mean, you and I should team up for some quality free software work?

ungoogled-chromium and Bromite do it for Chromium, so it should theoretically be possible for VSCode.

How about we contribute back the changes needed?

Maybe there are dependencies on closed source libraries or API's which report telemetry? I'm no expert on this though.

wont just blocking from host file would be sufficient? add certain domains and ip addresses to the list

You are correct, I didn't read the whole thing completely.