Here's a question: are you using git, and is node_modules ignored?
I ask because I think VSCode (by default) leans on the gitignore to decide which files to index. If it's indexing node_modules for whatever reason, that could create some serious overhead.
I'm not sure I was super clear above, but I'm not too worried about fixing this. Now that I have a good VIM configuration I just don't feel the urge to go back.
