I use VS Code most of the time, but the reason I always use Notepad for taking quick notes _is_ the startup time of VS Code. If they improved it, I'd be using it for both. It is an important metric for some.

If I need to take a quick look at a file but don't plan on actively doing a bunch of work on it, I usually open in Sublime for the same reason.

Still get syntax highlighting and everything, but waiting for VS Code can be long enough to derail my train of thought.

I work in IntelliJ IDEA whise startup times are horrible. However, since I always work on a set of projects, I never close them, so, essentially, startup time is 0.

Also, IDEA has scratch files for quick notes available through a shortcut (I guess VS Code might have a similar plugin), so startup tome isn’t an issue either.

Engineers like to optimize everything, including how they use their time. If you've got something in your head that you want to fix or write, you want to spend time doing just that, not staring at your screen waiting and maybe losing some of your mental model.

If you think a second or two matters when loading an editor you need to cut back on the coffee.

But you normally write code for an hour or many hours. Just opening one or two files for a quick fix sounds more like devops work.

That’s why I never close the project(s) I’m working on. So my startup time is instantaneous