VS code is decent, all rounder, free, open enough to be forked.
And people forget that it's marvel of engineering. Go look through code. That doesn't get produced for free.
Microsoft or any company owes nothing for free to anyone whatsoever. This entitlement syndrome needs to be in check.
The problem is when the free offering is actually designed to ensnare you in a tarpit of legal liability and uncapped financial liability. Especially with a service like VSCode where it's not a single purchase and you rely on Microsoft indefinitely (through extensions and updates). But it's designed that way. There's no other option. They chose to not make it simple to avoid a single clean payment, and extract longer term money of ambiguous amount based on user resistance.
That's worth money.
Like I always say about open source. I'm skeptical about adapting frameworks without big money behind them... Because relying on the whims of random internet amazing engineer is a risk.
MS will make money on vscode. Just like Google makes money on Chrome. Just not directly.
See the Unity license change fiasco. https://www.engadget.com/unity-apologizes-and-promises-to-ch...
I'll take browser tech + JS based IDE over a streamlined ASM based one that updates at a glacial pace any day. Which is why there aren't really any other great options, traditional IDEs can't keep up. Even MS' own original visual studio product - there's no point to it anymore.