I am sorry to hear of your experiences but they are not relevant to this discussion for the following reasons:-
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Our sketches in Visual Studio are always 100% compatible with the Arduino IDE so there will never be the re-work you experienced with your non-Arduino projects. This is already proven because users already have the option to switch between Arduino IDE and Visual Studio at any time
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There is no obligation to buy any software from Microsoft, my instructions about this offer have always stated VERY clearly that this is a 3 year free offer, as have Microsofts instructions. You do not have to read the small print to know this information. I always link to the same page about this free offer. The page title in bold states free microsoft software for 3 years, see for yourself, it is very clear.
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At the end of the 3 years all Arduino projects will continue to provide intellisense in the free express version of Visual Studio. At that time users will need to switch to Arduino to upload but this is common for other less capable plugins so nothing new. At the end of the 3 years users will have to switch to Arduino to burn boot loaders but most other plugins don't provide this feature anyway
Our community is currently expanding at approx. 70 new users per day and has done so for some time. We have great feedback from many very happy and relieved Arduino programmers. This includes both novices and experts. The free offer that I have brought to peoples attention has been appreciated publicly in various blogs by happy users.
I have ensured that every feature of the Arduino IDE is available in Visual Studio, I do not request donations in return for adding what I consider to be fundamental features to a fully compatible and easy to use Arduino alternative.
There is nothing that the Arduino IDE can do that Visual Studio can not do but there are lots of things Visual Studio can do for Arduino that the Arduino IDE can not do.
Our setup and installation motto says something that other plugins are unable to say:-
If it works in the Arduino IDE then it will work in a valid copy of Visual Studio Professional. It is that easy!
I accept this solution is of no interest to some people on this forum but many other people have and are benefiting every day. Many of these people have read this and other Visual Micro articles and have happily benefited.
My posts are for the people who want to benefit from this information. If you don't like it and have nothing positive to say then maybe I can politely ask you to go and be negative elsewhere.