DOC: Encourage use of pre-commit in the docs
Previously, we stated it as merely optional.

xref https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/pull/30773, https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/pull/30814

lgtm. Having not really use pre-commit that much does it also play nicely with VSCode? Probably the route most first-time contributors come through so just want to make sure it doesn't add complications there https://github.com/magicmark/pre-commit-vscode

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MarkLarah.pre-commit-vscode >  does it also play nicely with VSCode? 

What possible complications do you think of? 
The pre-commit hook runs a few checks. Either you have already enable flake8 and black in vscode, and then the pre-commit won't complain, or you do not have auto-formatting enabled, and the pre-commit hook will reformat for black / print the errors for flake8 (this what I do, works fine).

I suppose if you have black auto-formatting enabled in vscode, you could run into problems with different configurations? 
 > I suppose if you have black auto-formatting enabled in vscode, you could run into problems with different configurations?

You can disable plugins by workspace in VSCode, so I wouldn't consider this an issue.

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/extension-gallery#_disable-an-extension