Yes I had exactly the same experience, maybe 3 years ago? Installing lsp-mode resulted in an overblown UI with all sorts of gadgets; it looked like an attempt t

Yes I had exactly the same experience, maybe 3 years ago? Installing lsp-mode resulted in an overblown UI with all sorts of gadgets; it looked like an attempt to create an "IDE experience" in Emacs, and so I ran away, used eglot for a few months, and then ended my 20-year Emacs run and switched to VSCode. (Apart from magit -- of course I do still have an Emacs instance running.) But it does sound like people are saying that lsp-mode got rid of the tasteless stuff. And since Eglot development has now moved away from GitHub to a combination of unpleasant mailing lists and unfashionable issue-tracking apps, I wonder whether it will stand a chance in the future competition.