VSCode is not a “given” - I certainly don’t use, or ever intend to use, it.
Patch files are excellent for small diffs at a glance. Sure, I can also `git remote add coworker ssh://fork.url` and `git diff origin/main..coworker/branch`, and that would even let me use Difftastic (!), but the patch is entirely reasonable for quick glances of small branch diffs.