This is not necessarily the case for every programming language. Plenty of them are first-class citizens in Emacs and only decent in VS Code, languages like Clojure and Haskell come to mind, and I'm guessing pretty much every LISP.

VS Code is probably a pragmatic choice if you want to start coding right away and don't care about any customization, but if someone is interested in productivity and efficiency, Emacs should be considered (along with other high-performing tools).