I use "Remote - SSH" to develop on a VM. I try to keep the amount of software I run on my laptop to a minimum to keep it cooler and quieter. I have a VM on my workstation PC at home, which has a much better CPU than my laptop. The VM runs vscode backend, while the laptop runs vscode frontend, slack and a web browser.

Okay, I get this, guess I would just ssh -x for that purpose, but that assumes a full Linux environment.

Keeping a laptop cool and quite while running slack and vscodium is a task in itself. I guess I would create a CI Pipeline and just commit via git

vscode remote ssh mode is a much better experience than x forwarding. Like, it's not even close. It is hands down the best remote editing experience I've ever used in any kind of editor or ide, and running anything electron through remote X11 is basically like trying to kill a flea with a tractor.