VSCode is gigantic and complicated and only really useful to developers anyway. It does not really overlap with notepad. Notepad++ is almost simple enough to replace notepad. (Personally it's still too complex to replace notepad for me but I know it does for some people.)
Maybe get a better computer? (not trying to be glib, seriously I wonder what are you running on). I run on a 2017 Mac Book Pro and it is very very fast for me.
Also, personal opinion: VS Code gets a big +1 from me due to it recently adding remote development capabilities (eg connect to host over SSH, do dev/compile stuff there).
>[performance problem involving software having ten million layers of abstraction and running a full web browser engine (read: second OS) just to type some characters]
>Maybe get a better computer?
thanks i almost forgot i was on HN for a second there