The thing is, org-mode is quite big. No new project will have implemented all of the features.
For myself, I've never used narrow to subtree, but I was struck by the apparent lack of scheduling C-s, agenda view C-a a, tables (org-mode's tables are just fantastic) and source blocks.
Maybe they'll get to some of these later. For now, just having a hierarchy of headings that you can move up-and-down and in-and-out easily seems pretty useful.
I'm one of the many non-coders who uses Emacs just for Org-Mode and would love to be able to work in a more, well, "normal" editor. But you're right, without folding, or many other features (Refile being a major one), this just isn't there. Unfortunately, so much to Org-Mode that I'm not sure it can be cloned without an obscene amount of work.
It can fold if you indent the text, not ideal but hardly a dealbreaker. I'm happy to say the VS Code is how I started with orgmode and I'm excited to see what's missing/coming, it's great!
Another fundamental thing is narrow to subtree (C-x n s/w in org-mode or just click in workflowy)
So this is just .org syntax highliter with some snippets and shortcuts.
.org markup language is much less common than markdown, and this is bad. Nobody wants to learn 2 similar languages with conflicting syntax.