Picking eMacs up as a replacement for VSCode while having to get stuff done is risky. I would venture to say that it’s not realistic as far as your conceptualization. I say this because you venture to ask if the setup process is similar. The answer is a resounding no. VSCode is incredibly easy to “get productive” and eMacs is on the other end of the spectrum.

That being said, if you can work some time into your schedule to learn eMacs, your goal can be realized. (Also, it’s totally worth it.) I was a VSCode user and made some time to learn eMacs exclusively for org mode (possibly eMacs’s coolest feature). Once I was comfortable, I just played around with a dev environment in eMacs (for fun) and loved it so much that I left VSCode.