Clarification of output array type when metrics accept multiclass/multioutput

Clarification of how we should handle array output type when a metric outputs several values (i.e. accepts multiclass or multioutput input).

The issue was summarised succinctly in https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/pull/30439#issuecomment-2532238196:

> Not sure what should be the output namespace / device in case we output an array, e.g. roc_auc_score with average=None on multiclass problems...

Currently all regression/classification metrics that support array API and multiclass or multioutput, all output an array in the same namespace and device as the input (checked code and manually). Summary of these metrics :

### Regression metrics

Returns array in same namespace/device:
* [explained_variance_score](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.explained_variance_score.html#sklearn.metrics.explained_variance_score)
* [r2_score](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.r2_score.html#sklearn.metrics.r2_score) 
* [mean_absolute_error](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.mean_absolute_error.html#sklearn.metrics.mean_absolute_error)
* [mean_absolute_percentage_error](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.mean_absolute_percentage_error.html#sklearn.metrics.mean_absolute_percentage_error)
* [mean_pinball_loss](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.mean_pinball_loss.html#sklearn.metrics.mean_pinball_loss)
* [mean_squared_error](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.mean_squared_error.html#sklearn.metrics.mean_squared_error)
* [mean_squared_log_error](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.mean_squared_log_error.html#sklearn.metrics.mean_squared_log_error)
* [root_mean_squared_error](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.root_mean_squared_error.html#sklearn.metrics.root_mean_squared_error)
* [root_mean_squared_log_error](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.root_mean_squared_log_error.html#sklearn.metrics.root_mean_squared_log_error)

### Classification metrics
Returns array in same namespace/device:

* [precision_recall_fscore_support](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.precision_recall_fscore_support.html#sklearn.metrics.precision_recall_fscore_support) and family ([f1_score](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.f1_score.html#sklearn.metrics.f1_score), [fbeta_score](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.fbeta_score.html#sklearn.metrics.fbeta_score), [precision_score](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.precision_score.html#sklearn.metrics.precision_score), [recall_score](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/modules/generated/sklearn.metrics.recall_score.html#sklearn.metrics.recall_score))

Looking at the metrics code, if we wanted to support a list of scalars, we'd generally have to do extra processing to convert an array (often output of an xp.** function) to a list of scalars.

Once we arrive at a consensus we should update the array API documentation and update the `check_array_api_metric` in tests such that when the output is array/list - we check that the output type etc is correct.

cc @ogrisel @betatim

COMMENT:
> automatic vs. explicit conversion

This is my understanding of how the code works. Looking at the 'easy' example of `mean_absolute_error`:

https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/blob/7a88bf1cd4c05ee0fc1d93d235ddf315378bc0dd/sklearn/metrics/_regression.py#L287-L292

`xp.abs` takes `y_pred` and `y_true` as inputs, and as array API aims for "array type in equals array type out", the result should be in the same namespace / device. AFAICT the `_average` function tries to do the same, I think these are the relevant lines:

https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/blob/bdef5aa4245278046b4e3854f10de5c1db2d28d6/sklearn/utils/_array_api.py#L621

and

https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/blob/bdef5aa4245278046b4e3854f10de5c1db2d28d6/sklearn/utils/_array_api.py#L660

So the code automatically outputs an array in the same namespace / device as the input, simply by virtue of array API having the "array type in equals array type out" principle.

If you wanted something else, you would have to manually convert it at the end.

I guess the situation with `confusion_matrix` is that you convert inputs to a numpy array within the function, which means you have the decision as to whether you convert back to input type or keep as numpy at the end.

I think this is how it works, but I may have missed something.

Labels: Needs Decision, Array API