For big C++ projects, the .vsconfig import/export way of handling Visual Studio components has worked well for the large teams I'm on. Tell someone to import a .vsconfig and the Visual Studio Installer does everything. Only times we've had issues is from forgetting to update it with components/SDK changes.

Yeah, seems like this is just ignorance around .vsconfig files. Makes life way easier. You can also just use the VS Build Tools exe to install things instead of the full VS installer, if you plan to use a different IDE.

Can you use .vsconfig to tell Build Tools what your project needs?

Can you generate .vsconfig with Build Tools?

You pass in the --config param to import it.

Exporting this way might be possible but it wouldn't be as useful seeing as it would just grab everything you have installed instead of some minimal set used by some project.