How do I remove this section at the top of the sidebar?

I use ctrl+shift+E and ctrl+shift+F to switch between Explorer and Search in the sidebar, I don’t need these icons at the top of the sidebar taking up space. I can unpin them, but the ‘active’ one always present.

Is there an option somewhere to remove this that I can’t find? Windsurf and VS Code don’t force this to appear.

I believe this is the ‘activity bar’, but in horizontal orientation. Switching back to vertical orientation presents the same issue; you can unpin options but one always remains, and it can’t be hidden altogether.