in order to compile C++ code for the engine, or just your project, you need to utilize code injection by virtue of the Unreal Head Tool, and Unreal Build Tool, and this is functionality that is well outside of Clang without a lot of hand holding.
there is documentation for how to setup VSCode here: Setting Up Visual Studio Code for Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.5 Documentation | Epic Developer Community
as for “not wanting to use VS2022” you do not need the full version of VS2022 (the enterprise install) you can utilize the VS 2022 Community Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition – Download Latest Free Version which is free to use (as long as you/your organization have made less then 1 Million USD in the last calendar year), and you get the majority of functionality of the Full Visual Studio (including the numerous recent improvements targeted directly toward Unreal Engine developers)