Indeed. “No modals” has been a rallying cry since Larry Tesler and the Macintosh, but I haven’t seen a useful dissection of the problems with the other extreme.

As you point out, VSCode in particular is loaded with ever-changing user feedback and prompting, spread throughout the interface with no rhyme or reason as to how attention should be distributed.

The irony is that VS Code also frequently replaces traditional modal dialogs with "pseudo modal" command palette flows, where you can click outside the palette alright - it will just kick you out of the flow so you will have to do everything again.

I honestly don't understand what's the problem with modals is in the first place. Most "issues" listed on that page are either subjective or could be argued against.