I used to think GitHub Codespaces would help popularise Gitpod but now realize it is the other way around. Gitpod is currently permitted to exist in the Visual Studio Code ecosystem to popularise GitHub Codespaces, and Microsoft can step in at any moment to create legal crises that strategically divide the market from a business perspective because, like Apple and their AppStore: it is their ecosystem that they control and they are in absolute control.
I’ve been using spacemacs, doom emacs, and bedrock emacs distributions. The latter is mostly geared towards really learning your way. It’s a huge investment, indeed. But it pays out in the long run. Same thing can be said about elisp probably, but I never dared to quench such thirst… (yet?)