I believe if that entry point existed, it would have to be client, as the user event script is not triggered when an end user selects to close a SO, WO, etc. I attempted to leverage fieldChanged () on the status of the order, but does not appear to be triggered for this native NS action

I could be wrong, but this comes up fairly frequently and I believe the answer is no, there is not an event triggered. You can build something with saved searches and scheduled scripts of you can cope with the short delay.

the desperation operation is that the sales order / work order is viewed after clicking the close button

There is a SuiteAnswer that explains about this limitation and shows a workaround, which uses the Before Load event to read the transaction status. Please see the SuiteAnswer Id 41825: https://suiteanswers.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/41825/kw/41825 Hope this helps!