Only if you are being amazingly reductive. VSCode is about changing desirable sequences of bytes into more desirable sequences of bytes, where the definition of "desirable" is stupendously complex and depends on state that exists on many other computers around the world. If you just want to change bytes you can open notepad or nano and watch as they boot instantly. VSCode is much closer to Eclipse than nano in its capabilities.
> And the most baffling thing to me is that such things are so widely accepted.
To me I think about things like screen refresh rate or keyboard latency. Some people demand 120hz or incredibly low keyboard latency. But I'd wager that the percentage of people who care about such things are a rounding error. Even among hardcore gaming enthusiasts, optimal fps has only doubled over the past three decades. So there is way more real time to do stuff, and developers fill that time! They might fill it with features or they might fill it with lower development costs.