CI/CD audit: 60+ suites, brittle string guards, solo-maintainer overhead

[BaseInfinity]

Problem

CI runs 60+ test suites. Two failed on v1.100.0 due to brittle string matching (stale version in SDLC.md, overly strict 95% grep in test-self-update.sh) — neither was a real regression.

For a solo-maintainer repo where all tests run locally, the cost/benefit is questionable:

• Keeps: branch protection gate, Linux/macOS env parity
• Costs: brittle guards false-fail on content changes, block releases for test-grep fixes

Options

1. Gut it — keep only structural tests (version parity, file existence, hook wiring), drop content greps
2. Tier it — fast gate (structural) blocks merge, slow suite (content) is advisory
3. Keep as-is — accept the overhead, fix greps as they break

Context

v1.100.0 release: 2 CI failures, both test-string issues, 0 real regressions. The release ran all tests locally first.