ESP-Prog debugging works, I’ve personally tested it, e.g. in ESP-Prog debugger issue. No visible error. (Ubuntu) - #41 by maxgerhardt
What happens when you drop into a CLI and execute
pio upgrade --dev
pio debug --interface=gdb -x .pioinit
in the project’s root directory?
This starts OpenOCD and GDB, and should show an error if there is some.
If there is not, you’ve likely installed a conflicting VSCode extension, as in the linked topic.