>Once you’ve created an account and installed it, you can start adding dozens of plug-ins, including various synthesizers, gates, reverbs, compressors, sequencers, keyboards, etc.
Yeah, you can easily avoid having to make an account, if you just download and compile the plugins yourself. The account just makes it easier for those of us who don't want to fuss with all the compiling and copying-into-the-right-place of the plugins.
I do both - I have all the sources for all the public modules I can find (and there are usually about two more added, on average, every day by the community... WOW!) and I build VCV Rack from sources every week or so, just to see the development pace (and what a pace it is!), but I also just go through the web page, use an account, install the free plugins through the Plugin Manager feature, and so on.
It helps to compare the two while developing my own plugins.
And I have to say that this app is amazing! I've rekindled my love for modular synthesis (been into synths since the 70's) because of this app, and its all I'm taking to my bands jam sessions these days -replacing a suite of digital/DSP synths that I was previously relying on.
Bingo! VCV Rack is built for musicians, not software developers, many who do not know how to unzip a downloaded plugin. This is perfectly fine, because musicians can do many things that I can't. So to make it possible to use for the masses, an account system is best, where it takes two buttons to add and install a plugin. The minority who don't like giving their email address in exchange for this generously-made software can still look at the manifest JSON files to get the binary download link, or compile it themselves.
Sigh.