The most common answer I got was that reproducible builds were desirable in case of rollbacks.

Working this way is a skill. It takes practice. But I believe anyone can get there.

When I work on a project that relies on manual verification, I'm never confident. I never feel sure of the work I'm doing.

...which is often actually an asset.

AI will take all our jobs! AI will destroy the software development industry! Or not.

"Oh yeah, we have lots of tests! I'm not sure if they work, though."

The only way to get accurate software development estimates is to do the software development.

Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away, or is it?

What can you do when no change would be safe to make? First, make the change safe.

What change can you make that is as safe as adding or removing a code comment?

This should not be controversial. It's effectively a tautology.