TIL that VS Code shows one-character-wide tab chars as "→" (U+FFEB Halfwidth Rightwards Arrow) rather than a 'normal' fullwidth arrow, and most fonts don't have that. Installed Quivira as recommended on https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/94939 and now I have tiny arrows instead of replacement characters!
thanks @Claire for telling me to uncorrupt my DB, it was suprisingly painless and relatively fast
~ awoo.space admin ~ bisexual ~ nonbinary ~ likes video games and weird/ old electronics and will post obsessively about both ~ AC, Germany ~ avatar by @dzuk