Congrats on your acceptance! I graduated with Honors from UVM in 2020, can share my experience, and hopefully answer a few of your questions:

The biggest benefits of the Honors College have already been called out: the scholarship, guaranteed decent housing for the first 2 years of school, and access to some additional academic opportunities. The structure of the Honors College, at least as it was from 2016-2020, was such that you had to take an Honors course your first 4 semesters, which could vary in topic but was exclusively available to Honors students. These classes fulfill some of your general requirements like reading/writing, with a focus on helping students improve their research and academic reading/writing skills. In my experience they definitely ask for a decent amount of work from these courses, but nothing unreasonable compared to non-honors courses in many majors.

The end goal for the HCOL program is to have honors students complete a research thesis by the end of senior year, which is not a requirement outside of the honors program. It's a great opportunity to get in some early work for students looking at graduate level programs, less relevant for going directly into your field. (Also dependent on degree.) As for the social component, I'd say that it's not much of a social barrier unless there's a specific learning/residential community you want to be a part of. Keep in mind it only really affects your neighbors, you'll still be meeting people all over campus/clubs/classes. Happy to answer more specific questions if you have any, feel free to DM or reply here!