Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes - with the caveat that the functionality requires an extension to be fully realized

• VS Code Version: 1.94.2
• OS Version: MacOS 14.7

This is a continuation of #223762 . The fix that @aeschli provided in #224949 is an improvement, but doesn't quite answer the question posed in the original issue: how to open an empty workspace using a protocol URL. The code implemented #224949 sets the path to /, meaning that all URL's that specify only desired scheme and authority, e.g. vscode://vscode-remote/ssh+whatever open the root folder of the remote, rather than an empty workspace.