And instead vscode supports SSH (without quotes), you can connect to an SSH host, and it will open files and folders on the host like it does locally. And if you open the integrated terminal it will run on the remote host. And it will forward the git login agent so you can commit or push with the credentials of your local machine. And it can forward ports from the remote.

Well, try lxqt+labwc. You’ll need to set it up, but if you are already willing to tinker with xorg in that machine it won’t throw you off too much. You’ll be pleased with the result

no one cares if it’s the protocol or the implementation. it just works worse than x11 on modest hardware

Actually, people that are not hell bent on using x11 do care… That is because the protocol is inherently more efficient than x11, and the compositor matters.

So if you try to run kwin or mutter, there’s no doubt they are going to be more demanding than a plain xorg server (but not more than xorg+KDE or xorg+gnome). But if you try to use a compositor made for low hardware like labwc, it’s gonna run laps around xorg. And you can even use labwc on lxqt, so you get your familiar desktop environment but with a modern Wayland compositor.

Just try it. Dig up an old intel atom netbook and see if you prefer using xorg or labwc

It’s there and it’s easy. Most people don’t use terminal text editors unless they are SSHing in a server, and they would only do that sporadically, so it makes no sense to become proficient in a complex text editor like vim or Emacs for that little use case.

Sidenote: personally, I learned vim once, and used it extensively every day for two years. I stopped using it for one year and was back to square one. Now I use vscode for everything… Even when I’m using SSH, because vscode supports SSH