There's definitely a lot to recommend w/ your approach, which actually overlaps a bit w/ my reasons for using Obsidian.
My obd vault is "a folder of markdown docs" (which retains the "future-proof, no lock-in" benefits you cited). But the excellent WYSIWYG UX (open files in Edit mode, w/ "Live Preview" enabled) is something I haven't seen replicated in any VSCode or Cursor extension/plugin. I also prefer a dedicated tool for note-taking and "PKM" (Personal Knowledge Management"), as a peer of my IDE(s) for coding. I get to use the best tool for the job, w/ no compromises. Switching to a different IDE for a given project (eg IntelliJ for wrangling Kotlin) doesn't disrupt my workflow, and having clear context boundaries (note-taking vs coding) is a personal preference.
YMMV, different strokes,.... I know some emacs org-mode fans out there will extoll the benefits of using "one tool to rule them all", which does sound compelling... (shrug).
I love that there are such a variety of quality tools and approaches -- and, I'm very happy with mine.
Absolutely get this. And yes there's no doubt that a dedicated tool can bring features and a UX that's hard to replicate with a general purpose text editor with the same degree of polish, if at all in some cases. Some of the stuff in Obsidian does look compelling (shrug)!
I think what matters more is like you say - how the data is stored. It's been nice to see this convergence towards markdown and it's this that's seems the real sweet spot (or plain text, more generally). Separate the data from the logic and you're free to operate on your notes with whatever fits at the time, or even with different tools at the same time (on mobile, say).
Not news to many folk here on HN but a refreshing contrast to other PKM that use proprietary formats, often along with monthly subscription fees for what is essentially variations on "editing a plain-text database".
I used a similar setup for a while: Obsidian for taking notes in markdown, and vscode for coding.
Eventually I moved to using vscode for both. My gigantic notes.md file is always open in tab 1, so I can go to it immediately with Ctrl + 1.
Finding notes in a single file is easier for me than finding them in a bazillion tiny files. And there's less friction whenever I need to make a note (no need to create and name a new file).
I went the opposite way, I started off as you (with nvim), then moved to other open-source PKMs like Trilium, then used Obsidian and it was love at first sight.
Keeping everything in a git repo makes it easy to sync across devices + backed up.
My obd vault is "a folder of markdown docs" (which retains the "future-proof, no lock-in" benefits you cited). But the excellent WYSIWYG UX (open files in Edit mode, w/ "Live Preview" enabled) is something I haven't seen replicated in any VSCode or Cursor extension/plugin. I also prefer a dedicated tool for note-taking and "PKM" (Personal Knowledge Management"), as a peer of my IDE(s) for coding. I get to use the best tool for the job, w/ no compromises. Switching to a different IDE for a given project (eg IntelliJ for wrangling Kotlin) doesn't disrupt my workflow, and having clear context boundaries (note-taking vs coding) is a personal preference.
YMMV, different strokes,.... I know some emacs org-mode fans out there will extoll the benefits of using "one tool to rule them all", which does sound compelling... (shrug).
I love that there are such a variety of quality tools and approaches -- and, I'm very happy with mine.