[giraffe_lady]

I prefer to use emacs but it just doesn't fit well for the kinds of work I do the last few years. I am often switching between very different projects, usually for a short period to accomplish a specific goal. The per language (and per version, and per framework etc) config is just too much when I'm likely only going to be working in a specific codebase for a few weeks or even days.

VS code (or whatever jetbrains thing) works well enough with almost no config where emacs works better with a lot more config. Worth it for some kinds of work but not others.

[iLemming]

That's my daily slimnastics, I often have to explore projects in languages I don't typically code in, and I have no problem running 'M-x packages' in Emacs and installing some packages and enabling some modes as needed. Even though my package manager is set in such way that it ignores these "temporarily installed packages" after the restart.

What's great about Emacs that I don't have to restart or even save anything - I can enable/disable things on the go, even installing and using lsp-servers. I typically experiment in my scratch buffer (it's persistent between the sessions), and when my experiments prove worthy adding to the config, I move them.

I have VSCode and I run it sometimes, often when I'm working with someone who doesn't use Emacs. It almost invariably requires more attention and inflicts more annoyance. it-just-works™ rarely feels working for me there.