I've literally programmed with VSCode for basically a decade this way without issues. Zed lags, it's disappointing and if I really like Zed I'll have to sort out another setup.
MSTSC is one of the rock-solid tools from Microsoft, and does better than almost everything else available on the market other than some PC over IP technologies specifically highly optimized for this use case. I've been programming with an ancient ThinkPad forever because I'm just remoting into a much more powerful machine.
If you are having problems with Windows RDP then the problem is somewhere else along the pipeline, not RDP itself. No other remote solution I've used is even in the same ballpark as RDP in terms of responsiveness and quality. RDP on a LAN is very usable for actual coding work.
Maybe try gaming-oriented remote desktop tools, like steam link or sunshine/moonlight. Those work great with directx, assuming you have a working gpu (at least integrated gpu) on your remote box. They also have way better latency, though use a lot more bandwidth.
By explaining the advantages over "older" methods. A lot of people use Moonlight/Sunshine for non gaming related stuff, specially considering than the alternatives are all proprietary.
They're productivity tools, not gaming software. You'll be faster and deal with less errors using the correct optimized remote desktop tool for your job, versus what you're using now, which can be slow and error prone.
Sunshine and Moonlight are no more than accelerated and finely tuned VNC servers that happen to be targeted at gaming. You can totally set them up as a regular remote desktop solution.
Right, but I'm saying their sites make it very clear that they're meant for gaming, so GGP may indeed have a hard time convincing corporate IT that they're for work.
My post was answering the question of how they should ask for permission to use it. You pitch it as productivity software that helps you do your job better.
If no monitor is connected then RDP doesn't load gpu drivers. It can also make RDP performance much worse as HW accelerated video encoding is not working