Motivated by the geometry of Levi degenerate CR hypersurfaces, we define a pre-K\"ahler structure on a complex manifold as a pre-symplectic structure compatible with the almost complex structure, i. e. a closed (1, 1) -form. Extending Freeman filtration to the pre-K\"ahler setting, we define holomorphic degeneration and finite-nondegeneracy and show that the symmetry algebra of a real analytic pre-K\"ahler structure is finite-dimensional if and only if it is finitely nondegenerate. Concurrently, we extend the classical correspondence between K\"ahler and Sasakian structures to the pre-K\"ahler setting, i. e. a one-to-one (local) correspondence between k-nondegenerate CR hypersurfaces equipped with a transverse infinitesimal symmetry and k-nondegenerate pre-K\"ahler structures. We additionally formalize a second relationship between the categories, constructing a natural k-nondegenerate pre-K\"ahler structure defined on a line bundle over such CR structures via pre-symplectification. Focusing on the lowest dimensional case, we solve the equivalence problem of non-K\"ahler pre-K\"ahler complex surfaces that are 2-nondegenerate by associating a Cartan geometry to them and explicitly express their local invariants in terms of the fifth jet of a potential function. We describe the vanishing of their basic invariants in terms of a double fibration, which gives a pre-K\"ahler characterization of the twistor bundle of symplectic connections on surfaces. Lastly, our study of pre-K\"ahler complex surfaces that are symmetry reductions of homogeneous 2-nondegenerate CR 5-manifolds leads to a characterization of certain critical symplectic connections on surfaces and shows locally homogeneous 2-nondegenerate pre-K\"ahler complex surfaces are flat.
Makhmali et al. (Wed,) studied this question.