1. I wanted to build Windows 11 apps and I had to choose between Windows Forms, WinUI3, Win32 and WPF I think. I don't really know the difference between the 3 and no one really explains that (unless Win32 which is obvious).
WinForms is "legacy", WPF is the way to go.
3. I installed Visual Studio overnight (it comes with all the tools that building apps need). It downloaded 6GB of data and used 20GB of storage. All i want to build is a hello world app.
Bad choice not cherrypicking what you need and installing a whole lot of packages you don't.
5. The app is extremely resource heavy and way too over-featured. I build the boilerplate app and Run it and it takes minutes to build (most of the time is downloading dependencies so not such a big deal).
Nah, a basic "hello world" WinForms program is minuscule. A WPF one might have a bit more dependencies, say a MVVM framework, but for a one-window program that's it.
6. I open the newly created app in Sublime Text (my editor) and I can't find a way to build the app anymore.
Not clear what you were trying to do here.
7. Because Visual Studio is so bloated, I download Visual Studio Code, which is far more simple but I can still not figure out how to build my app even with the various extensions VS code boasts.
It's bloated because of your choices. VS Code still compiles and runs .exe with attached .pdbs.
8. After hours of googling, I formulate a script that can build the app from the command-line.
You don't need to google for hours and formulate any script. I can run a basic program from VS Coe just fine.
9. But I stil don't know how to build the app as the .exe file created does not execute.
No it's not. Microsoft's job here is to create tools, documentation and guides such that someone who wants to invest their time in learning their platform can get to "Hello world" quickly and in the right way.
Clearly they haven't done that here. OP was motivated to build something, and put their best effort into figuring out how to do so.
This is a usability thing: if someone makes a bunch of mistakes when using my software, it means I have failed to make my software usable enough for their purposes.
It’s not that simple. WPF has been mostly abandoned by the Windows team, while WinForms is owned by the .NET team and much better maintained. WPF will probably never be compatible with trimming and AOT compilation, WinForms will.
WinForms has its own issues, but there’s a reason why Scott Hunter recommended it over WPF at last year’s .NET Conf.
WinForms is "legacy", WPF is the way to go.
3. I installed Visual Studio overnight (it comes with all the tools that building apps need). It downloaded 6GB of data and used 20GB of storage. All i want to build is a hello world app.
Bad choice not cherrypicking what you need and installing a whole lot of packages you don't.
5. The app is extremely resource heavy and way too over-featured. I build the boilerplate app and Run it and it takes minutes to build (most of the time is downloading dependencies so not such a big deal).
Nah, a basic "hello world" WinForms program is minuscule. A WPF one might have a bit more dependencies, say a MVVM framework, but for a one-window program that's it.
6. I open the newly created app in Sublime Text (my editor) and I can't find a way to build the app anymore.
Not clear what you were trying to do here.
7. Because Visual Studio is so bloated, I download Visual Studio Code, which is far more simple but I can still not figure out how to build my app even with the various extensions VS code boasts.
It's bloated because of your choices. VS Code still compiles and runs .exe with attached .pdbs.
8. After hours of googling, I formulate a script that can build the app from the command-line.
You don't need to google for hours and formulate any script. I can run a basic program from VS Coe just fine.
9. But I stil don't know how to build the app as the .exe file created does not execute.
It's 100% on you.
10. I'm very disappointed.
It's 100% on you.