I do think it's a noble approach, if you can keep it up to date religiously (if you don't then it's a source of misinformation and false assumptions)

Hence my reasoning for separating the environment branches from the normal flow of development. They are separate to force intentionality in answering the "what is currently deployed" question.

agreed -

what is currently deployed

is the $50,000 question, as they say.

Most teams want to equate

main

to

What is deployed in Production

, and that almost always ends in wailing and gnashing of teeth

aye. I've opted to at least tag master on each release so there's a point in time marker

Same.