Code change:
<!-- Do Not Delete This! bugreporttemplate --<!-- Please read our Rules of Conduct: --<!-- Read our guide about submitting issues: --<!-- Search existing issues to avoid creating duplicates. --<!-- Test using the latest Insiders build to see if your issue has already been fixed: --<!-- Instead of creating your report here, use 'Report Issue' from the 'Help' menu in VS Code to pre-fill useful information. --<!-- Launch with to check. --Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes <!-- If you answered No above, use 'Help: Start Extension Bisect' from Command Palette to try to identify the cause. --<!-- Issues caused by an extension need to be reported directly to the extension publisher. The 'Help Report Issue' dialog can assist with this. --- VS Code Version: 1.89.0 OS Version: Linux x64 6.6.26-1-MANJARO Steps to Reproduce: VS Code. Developer Tools and watch Network requests. VS Code, open Settings. that Settings will not display any settings until the requests to are completed. reading the results of the queries, observe that this request is related to the absolutely despicable advertisement for GitHub Copilot_, to detect if it's already installed (or something) in order to show the ad in the Settings UI and that you are now even more incensed that something which should work immediately was taking 7 seconds or longer due to the fact that we are now living through a dystopia. Then quickly get over it and start considering a move to a different editor or a fork. Please choose one of the following suggestions: remove the GitHub Copilot advertisement from the Settings UI. waiting for network requests in order to show the Settings UI. this issue and ignore this unquestionably sane plea to help battle the enfecalization of this beloved product.
Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code, the latest stable release is 1.89.1. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains. Happy Coding!
The AUR hasn't been updated with 1.89.1 yet but looking at the resolved issues I don't see any related to this.
I have a 1-second timeout per network request. In other words, the delays should now have an upper limit on their duration.

Related discussion:
text: import { AbstractSettingRenderer, HeightChangeParams, ISettingLinkClickEvent, resolveConfiguredUntrustedSettings, createTocTreeForExtensionSettings, resolveSettingsTree, SettingsTree, SettingTreeRenderers } from './settingsTree.js'; import { ISettingsEditorViewState, parseQuery, SearchResultIdx, SearchResultModel, SettingsTreeElement, SettingsTreeGroupChild, SettingsTreeGroupElement, SettingsTreeModel, SettingsTreeSettingElement } from './settingsTreeModels.js'; import { createTOCIterator, TOCTree, TOCTreeModel } from './tocTree.js'; <del> import { CONTEXT_SETTINGS_EDITOR, CONTEXT_SETTINGS_ROW_FOCUS, CONTEXT_SETTINGS_SEARCH_FOCUS, CONTEXT_TOC_ROW_FOCUS, ENABLE_LANGUAGE_FILTER, EXTENSION_SETTING_TAG, FEATURE_SETTING_TAG, ID_SETTING_TAG, IPreferencesSearchService, ISearchProvider, LANGUAGE_SETTING_TAG, MODIFIED_SETTING_TAG, POLICY_SETTING_TAG, REQUIRE_TRUSTED_WORKSPACE_SETTING_TAG, SETTINGS_EDITOR_COMMAND_CLEAR_SEARCH_RESULTS, SETTINGS_EDITOR_COMMAND_SUGGEST_FILTERS, WORKSPACE_TRUST_SETTING_TAG, getExperimentalExtensionToggleData } from '../common/preferences.js'; </del> <ins> import { CONTEXT_SETTINGS_EDITOR, CONTEXT_SETTINGS_ROW_FOCUS, CONTEXT_SETTINGS_SEARCH_FOCUS, CONTEXT_TOC_ROW_FOCUS, ENABLE_LANGUAGE_FILTER, EXTENSION_FETCH_TIMEOUT_MS, EXTENSION_SETTING_TAG, FEATURE_SETTING_TAG, ID_SETTING_TAG, IPreferencesSearchService, ISearchProvider, LANGUAGE_SETTING_TAG, MODIFIED_SETTING_TAG, POLICY_SETTING_TAG, REQUIRE_TRUSTED_WORKSPACE_SETTING_TAG, SETTINGS_EDITOR_COMMAND_CLEAR_SEARCH_RESULTS, SETTINGS_EDITOR_COMMAND_SUGGEST_FILTERS, WORKSPACE_TRUST_SETTING_TAG, getExperimentalExtensionToggleData } from '../common/preferences.js'; </ins> import { settingsHeaderBorder, settingsSashBorder, settingsTextInputBorder } from '../common/settingsEditorColorRegistry.js'; import { IEditorGroup, IEditorGroupsService } from '../../../services/editor/common/editorGroupsService.js'; import { IOpenSettingsOptions, IPreferencesService, ISearchResult, ISetting, ISettingsEditorModel, ISettingsEditorOptions, ISettingsGroup, SettingMatchType, SettingValueType, validateSettingsEditorOptions } from '../../../services/preferences/common/preferences.js';