I really don't get why developers spend so much time developing some really great piece of software and then just make the install a really horrible experience. The last mile of software development, the install processes, needs to be unremarkable and boring.
Arduino's IDE is nice for some boards since you install the software and everything is ready to use, but that is only the case for some boards.
PlatformIO is mildly more difficult to install since it is a two step process: first the VSCode, then the extension. Both steps are easy enough to do and to some people it is preferable since they are already using VSCode.
The difference between Arduino's IDE and PlatformIO come down to installing board support and libraries. Arduino's IDE is probably better if you are using Arduino libraries on a board that it directly supports since the installation process will be nominally easier. If that isn't the case, PlatformIO will likely be significantly easier since it supports more board, frameworks, and libraries.
I only used the VScode extension and is great. Except that it modifies the whole interface so I have two IDE instances one for with platformio and one without. It even encouraged me to write test for my arduino projects
I really don't get why developers spend so much time developing some really great piece of software and then just make the install a really horrible experience. The last mile of software development, the install processes, needs to be unremarkable and boring.