From the upstream github, it looks like CODE-OSS should support templates in profice creation. But there are no predefined templates to define one upon when using the arch/manjaro package. Is this a packaging problem?
Probably an explicit made by the Arch maintainer.
If you want upstream you need to build from custom script
pamac search --aur visual studio code
TL:DR
sudo pacman-mirrors -aS unstable
sudo pacman -Syu base-devel
pamac build visual-stuido-code-bin
In fact, this is what eventually I did. Would have preferred the open source version though and ready to miss the official marketplace. Was not expecting to find some functionality indicated as available in GitHub - microsoft/vscode: Visual Studio Code to be also missing, particularly when not mentioned in Visual Studio Code - ArchWiki as a choice with a rationale.
What is the proper way to query the arch maintainer to check if this is an overlook and a missing install in the PKGBUILD or in case it is deliberate to invite the maintainer to at least drop a comment line about it in the PKGBUILD? My older credentials for arch bugs seem to be not working and registration for the arch SSO seems to be closed. Is there any bug reporting process in place for bugs in packages that are directly imported in Manjaro?
No - we have no such thing. Manjaro use upstream packages as-is.
For packages with a manjaro maintainer email gitlab.manjaro.org is the place to report.
My guess is that they aren’t included in Code OSS on purpose because some of them (like Python) use Microsoft extensions which are only licensed for use with VS Code.
Indeed. The problem is that sometimes the arch developers do not seem very keen at accepting bug reports directly from Manjaro users, so I wondered if there was a process in place to gather the reports and verify that they were reproducible in pristine arch before reporting.