Many projects have used "hook managers" like Husky for this to install hooks to run based on repository-stored metadata.

These new config-based hooks are definitely a step down the road towards obsoleting the third-party hook managers. One of the things they are for is for managing scripts to support multiple hooks for the same event. The new config format supports multiple hooks for the same event natively. (Which also helps in stacking personal ones versus repository ones.)

The only thing missing is that the repository's .git/config isn't itself source controlled in that repository, so for now there would still be an "install step", but it's now a lot simpler of an "install step" with the install being "append .example-gitconfig into your .git/config" rather than "set X files to X different contents in .git/hooks/*" where X is the number of event hooks to be concerned about.

It does open the door further to if there should be a ".gitconfig" in the Repository working tree that can also contribute repository-wide shared config, what config it can or cannot contribute, and how you secure that as a reviewable opt-in (especially change notifications). But a smartly built secure UX there would be a massive improvement over, say, shell scripts in npm postinstall operations touching .git/hooks "for you" (which is how many of the current hook managers auto-install, as side effects in dependency installs).

(ETA: Though most "install scripts" now just use the very scriptable `git config` command and so just be `git config set --local hook.$name.$field $value` sequences, which is also a simpler improvement over previous ways to install and/or merge hooks files by hooks managers.)