In general for me personally I like to ensure all software updates are installed daily (not just my editor/IDE).
When I login in the mornings the first thing that runs is a simple script that checks for and applies all updates for my OS, Apps, homebrew packages, shell packages, several applications extensions / plugins etc... likewise my servers install updates daily. Obviously there are pros and cons of (in)frequently updating software.
For me - with this approach of small, frequent updates I've found that updating software becomes boring - which is a good thing. I honestly can't remember the last time anything broke (that I noticed). I've taken this approach for around 12 years.
Sure, run your update. just shut the fuck up about it.
Since then, I've learned that it's not a matter of IF an upgrade will break your system, it's a matter of WHEN. There will always be that one bug that slips under the radar and breaks something, and it's usually right when you can afford it the least. These days, I do approximately weekly upgrades of all my systems/gear, but I make sure to schedule it when I know I will have the time to fix whatever issues come up. (In an enterprise setting, the expanded version of this is called Change Management.)
I use macOS with nix-darwin, so updating my applications is never very concerning - I can always just rollback if an update is bad. But macOS updates, while generally they don't break anything, have broken enough that it's the scariest part of my year.
The year they shut down any folders in the `/` directory was my (and many coworkers) downfall. It took me a solid 3-4 hours to recoup everything in a working order, and there were failing straggler scripts that were discovered months later.
As such I generally avoid updates as often as possible. Also, to be fair, I have a history in IT and while personal computer updates are generally good, infrastructure updates are time-consuming, error-prone, and generally scary, so I do have a default aversion.
That's all well and good until an update happens that changes workflow or changes the look/feel too much. Those sorts of changes cause disruption that I want to schedule. Or until an update is made that changes the software in a way that makes it actively worse for your use case. Those are the sorts of updates I want to avoid.
That's why I don't allow software to automatically update. Most of the time I won't notice the update, but when I do, it's a big deal that would have been better if I could have done it on a more convenient day.
I wanted to shut down my gaming PC the other week, so I selected "Update and shut down". Then I switched my monitors to my other computer. 10 minutes later I was wondering why the PC was still humming along. Switched the monitors back to it and saw my Windows 11 installation sitting patiently in the login screen.
What about the “What’s new tab” that opens right when you want to have some work done?
Or the notifications you get at the bottom-right corner suggesting to install extensions when you just want to see inside a file.
I mean, many people don’t care that much, it’s just a little annoyance to me, as little to not spent 5 mins to find a solution.
Edited for clarity
You could have just configured VS Code instead of completely changing editors. In fact, you're commenting on a post with a really fine-grained list of how to! Do you ever configure ST?
Agreed, both editors require configs to turn this off. ST is updated so rarely at least it was less annoying.
Some people are working with toolsets that benefit from constant updates.