Having to push a commit to test the Github equivalent (Actions) was a huge pain. I think I ended up with 80+ commits. I wish the existing solutions on the Github side worked. Mildly ironic that you're hosting this on Github.
Yep, CI like this is a catastrophe. Sourcehut's ad-hoc builds are really nice because you can test without pushing any changes. But sadly, Sourcehut CI is lacking in other areas.