Terribly written headline. These are Office add-ins, Visual Studio just happens to be part of the name because <insert joke about Microsoft naming here>.
Package managers, browser extensions, add-ons, plugins... all need due diligence but sometimes you just don't have the skills/time for. What's the solution, because I don't know.
This is probably the fourth time today I'm reading the word "weaponize" in an article. New trend? Not a fan.