I'm not a developer but I was using Pycharm (community edition, already free) and switched because I found it better for webdev, particularly the plugin ecosyst

I'm not a developer but I was using Pycharm (community edition, already free) and switched because I found it better for webdev, particularly the plugin ecosystem had useful components. Other apps do to, but I think vscode has gained a lot of development in the ecosystem because of the FOSS dressing it adopted. I think it's it has been closed source, paid for, then it wouldn't have garnered that attention and instead other OS projects would have gained more attention. So I don't think it's fair to say it's just about free-gratis status. Vscode kinda brought me back towards MS, or at least closer to them. Once I'd started using it on Linux (Kubuntu) then trying Win10 again was less of a leap. I've not bought in to the New Friendlier Microsoft, but the hope was growing.