If and when I "Learn' enough language for the Arduino to do that "Sketch" how much will be really usable in the larger world when I am through.
Any time spent learning C/C++ is well spent, the knowledge (and most or even all of the code) is portable to just about every platform known to man these days.
As for using the VS plugin, I tried the first release and it worked out of the box, since then I believe it's got better. Personally I don't know how anyone can use the Arduino IDE for anything more that a 100-line program or a quick syntax check on a forum post, although I know many (most?) people are happy with it.
Once you've used a real IDE there's no going back IMO.
Rob