I agree with all you’ve said but with regards to writing a dissertation for larger changes : have you tried letting it first right a plan for you as markdown (just keep this file uncommitted) and then let it build a checklist of things to do?

I find just referencing this file over and over works wonders and it respects items that were already checked off really well.

I can get a lot done really fast this way in small enough chunks so i know every bit of code and how it works (tweaking manually of course where needed).

But I can blow through some tickets way faster than before this way.