Is installing Xcode necessary?
I installed Xcode 12.2 on my MBP. I installed it from App Store and it's 28 gb, while my Mac only has a SSD of 128gb.
I use vscode for all my c/c++ programs so is there a need for me to keep Xcode on my device?
For C/++ you only need the compiler (clang)/toolchain, which can be installed via commandline:
xcode-select --install