A good ad-blocker goes a long way. You can block all Google domains with minimal impact to non-Google services.
AnAmericanPotato
joined 6 months ago
Give it time. This is Microsoft we're talking about. Look at GitHub or Skype.
Monocultures are bad. Popularity very rarely tracks quality. And once something is overwhelmingly popular, it usually goes to shit, because the momentum is enough to keep it successful.
See: Windows. Outlook. Reddit. CrowdStrike.
everyone and their mother uses VS Code
This is usually a good reason to avoid something. Especially if that something comes from Microsoft.
Using an ad-blocking DNS server solves most of those problems. Mullvad offers a public DNS server with no account required, but there are plenty of options out there.
You should still use a browser extension on top of that for pattern-based URL blocking, but a DNS-based blocker should be your first line of defense.