As far as I can tell, the account is just for: - github integration (e.g. git auth, sync text editor settings in private gist) - a trusted third party server

As far as I can tell, the account is just for: - github integration (e.g. git auth, sync text editor settings in private gist) - a trusted third party server for negotiating p2p sessions with someone else (for pair programming, debugging over a call, etc...) But anyone who wants to remove the microsoft/github account features from their editor entirely can just use vscodium instead.