I’m building an in-terminal IDE over at https://github.com/paradise-runner/toast that does this. No AI, no telemetry, just a text editor that has it all baked in and is easy on the eyes.

Defining “it all” is exactly the problem here.

Then go get a text editor? They’ve been around for decades. Use sublime text for all eternity. Why even complain here when what you want is a solved problem?

I'm not satisfied with any of the text editors I've used (I've used all the big ones for a few years each).

Zed was a promising new direction I.e. VSCode minus the bullshit. But it's not getting the polish / productionisation it would need to actually be a better editor than the others. And now it doesn't look like it will.

Try Gram. It's a fork of Zed which changes a few things, one of which is that all the AI stuff is disabled by default. I was interested in it because it doesn't download language servers without asking you (unlike Zed). Ultimately I'm kind of on the fence between it and Sublime, but it's a lot better than Zed imo.

They're a VC backed company, they aren't building for the user at all. The VC is their user.

Just need to see reality for how it is in the tech industry, products aren't made for users anymore they're mostly a ritual to please the VC gods. Bonus points if you're disruptive and a net-negative toward society.

No, a company will always build whatever they think will make them more money. If you want an editor without the bullshit try Sublime as it has a history of staying that way, or the good old Vim and emacs.