So I have .eslint and .settings (VSCode) files that I would like to be consistent across projects. How would I do this?
Currently, I am thinking that I should put them into a repository, which then I would instantiate as a submodule in new projects, which then I can symlink to.
Since your development settings have little to do with the source of your actual projects, I would suggest actually separating them into different repos, while keeping their source in the same directory on your dev machine.
And since this could be achieved using git submodules, I do not see a reason not to use these. I mean, that seems as exactly the use-case they were made for.