In those github examples, the platformio.ini has this content (partial extract)
from https://github.com/m5stack/M5EPD_Calculator

[env:m5stack-fire]
platform = espressif32
board = m5stack-fire

This project builds and runs fine.
But I am surprised at the board used. In Arduino IDE, there is a specific M5Stack board for the Paper.

In following up with the PlatformIO community support forum, I got very helpful support from someone, who said this:

"I see, indeed. You’re using the board package as instructed from m5-docs, which is using the Arduino core https://m5stack.oss-cn-shenzhen.aliyuncs.com/resource/arduino/m5stack-2.0.3.zip. PlatformIO only supports the official Arduino-ESP32, which does not have the M5Stack-Paper (but other M5Stack boards), see here. Seems like the M5Stack people just fork the Arduino-ESP32 core, add their own boards, and don’t merge immediately back, leaving regular core users in the dark."

but this user then discovered: "However, looking at the core download, it nicely has a package.json, so it can be used in PlatformIO, given the right board definition (already created in Create m5stack-paper.json by TomG736 · Pull Request #669 · platformio/platform-espressif32 · GitHub)."

https://community.platformio.org/t/m5stack-paper-help-helloworld-does-not-execute-default-platform-ini-seems-broken-i-have-a-working-guess/28186/6

I wondered about the consequence of using

board = m5stack-fire

his reply was: "Board board = .. selection influences a great number of things, that is, ESP32 type, flash size and the Arduino variant e.g. The m5stack_fire and and m5stack_paper variant folders each have their pins_arduino.h in them, and they might have different things (e.g., default pins for attached devices or SPI bus etc.) in them, leading to incompatibilities later."

So, is using

board = m5stack-fire

with VSCode/PIO ok?