I'm sorry but you are incorrect. VS needs admin rights to install into Program Files, registry updates and GAC install, etc. Otherwise the apps a developer builds are run in in their own process and unless there are special circumstances, should not need admin privs; VS should never be run as admin apart from those special circumstances.
What about tools like Docker or VirtualBox? Every time those high-frequency release software are updated, you need to request sudo using the audit tool or request for IT to update?
I can't even imagine writing a kernel hardware driver in a corporate setup if they at subjecting development environments to strict lockdown.
Really? This question from a security engineer on Hacker News? I can tell you've never developed on Windows because (as pointed out) Visual Studio needs root level permissions to operate. The level of access a user needs to run my program has nothing to do with the level of access I need to build the program. They are completely disjoint.