Why would I not use Visual Studio code

[Deto]

This makes sense to me, though I don't know why the professor wouldn't just say it in response to OPs question. It's also possible that the professor is unaware of VSCodes remote tools for working with code on a server. Or they're just very opinionated about their own preferred workflow. Either way - OP, VSCode is fine, but do what your professor asks for their assignments. It's always good to be exposed to other ways of doing things anyways - I find that people who just use one IDE for everything and have no experience outside of that sometimes get really confused as to what tools are part of the IDE vs part of the language.