The discussion around VSCode's SSH agent reveals significant criticisms regarding its architecture, perceived security flaws, and the monopolistic tendencies of Microsoft in the IDE space. While some users appreciate the IDE's functionality for remote development, especially over SSH and devcontainers, many express dissatisfaction regarding its open-source status and security concerns. Comments include suggestions for web-based alternatives like Runpod's openvscode-server and praise for terminal-based editors like nvim, which offer needed features but come with a learning curve. There are growing worries about the security of tools that have extensive permissions and recommend using sandboxes for safer development environments. Users are also noting the performance drawbacks of VSCode, particularly regarding resource usage and bugs that witnesses have encountered.