I have no idea how to configure vscode, but stack is really simple. This will get you started.
stack new my-project
cd my-project
stack ghci
> main
Haskell’s community evolved very differently from JS and the rest of open source. What seems simple to many isn’t necessarily what seems simple to the rest of us. Much of what this community considers simplicity is just convention and familiarity.
But so many people from our world are using it now that things are slowly becoming more “intuitive”!
I understand your frustration. It took me a lot of effort to get over the learning curve. Well worth it. But trust me, it’s easier than ever and getting better
A very quick Google search found Haskelly [0] and Haskero [1] for VS Code, both of whose installation instructions say to install Intero [2] locally in your project directory with "stack build intero" if you don't want to use "stack install" to install Intero globally.
[0] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=UCL.hask...
[1] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Vans.has...
The fact that haskell users seem to think these things are completely obvious and doesn't need to be explained is frankly a big part of the problem.