You are missing what are actually relevant for me, syntax highlighting, tab completion, projects, and plugins.

Notepad has nothing of that.

True, I should have said "2 basic key features for me" etc.

YMMV.

Don't forget regex!

Yeah, that is also quite good.

Just install VS Code

Yeah, the only Electron crap that I tolerate.

Try Zed; it's clearly aiming to be VSCode sans Electron in the long run, and it already has quite a lot.