> consider creating a release flag where an end user can do at least single "slow" run on a CPU on a reduced dataset, in single threaded mode, to sanity check the results and at least verify that the computational and algorithmic pipeline is sound at the most basic level.

Ok, that's a reasonable ask :) But yeah as you implied, good luck getting the average scientist, who in the best case begrudgingly uses version control, to care enough to do this.