VS Code has too steep a learning curve for someone who has never even written Hello World!
Learning to code is hard enough, without having to learn a new software UI, especially if all you've ever done on a computer is browse Facebook and write Word documents.
If you want a great example of a beginner's/child's first IDE, have a look at SonicPi
I remember in college being thrown into Visual Studio. I got things to work basically from a checklist. For the longest time includes and building/linking were mysteries done in the background. I feel like a lot of people were "programming by coincidence."
I think I still hold a grudge and prefer the command line to compile (which is its own mess).
There is a bit of a learning curve, but some sensible defaults and bundled extensions could go a long way to help new users along. Perhaps a "playground" mode, similar to what XCode has, would help as well.
Learning to code is hard enough, without having to learn a new software UI, especially if all you've ever done on a computer is browse Facebook and write Word documents.
If you want a great example of a beginner's/child's first IDE, have a look at SonicPi