Installing VS Code on Ubuntu 20.04 with auto updates

Wanted to know which is the way to get it with the latest stable changes?

I would say it's your call. Both are maintained by Microsoft developers and are updated simultaneously.

I usually install via apt, but snap is listed first here, is there any advantage?

The definition of advantage varies from user to user. But this might answer your question, If a package is available as both a deb and a snap, which method is preferrable?

..so I do not need to deal with the update notifications that take me to the website to download the .deb file again and manually install it as I did originally.

It's been a while I'm using Visual Studio Code installed from deb archive. During the installation, repositories are auto-added to ensure smooth update delivery. Make sure you don't disable the Microsoft repositories. Updates can be installed via Software Updater or using sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade.

..is there anyway to export the settings, uninstall and then reimport them when I install from the repo?

Some settings are stored in workspace folders. You can also check Settings Sync in Visual Studio Code. Note that this is still in preview, i.e., in development stage.

If you install with snap, you can add the flag --channel=edge, or just --edge, to get the newest release. The reason it isn't available by default is because it hasn't been tested enough to be considered "stable" by Snap. That doesn't mean it hasn't been tested by the application developers.

In my experience, The edge release is usually the same version you would get if you were to download from the developer's website.

The full command is:

Sudo snap install code --channel=edge --classic

Alternatively, you can install from the beta channel with --beta. Obviously this one is even riskier / newer than the edge channel version. I am not sure how Snap defines beta, though. It may be an actual MS beta or maybe just the package is beta.