It doesn't help the yaml ui/ux is awful.

   - if ${{ github.event_name == 'why do you think this is acceptable?" }}
      run:|
         echo "I need programmatic CI no matter how much you think I don't"

Just let us write our entire pipelines in typescript. People are already using Actions for bitcoin mining, hosting porn, or whatever - if I can do arbitrary shell stuff you're not making my life easier by putting it behind a yaml DSL pretending to be "no code."

If it were just typescript with a reasonable library we could run and debug it locally without jumping through hoops.

/rant

I don't get it how Python exists. Even with the best IDE support writing YAML is a misery.

I write Python for years (including messing code) and never feel the pain I found when I edit an even a slightly complicated YAML file.

The issue is not really the significant indentation of YAML, it is more of the ambiguity of the syntax plus the fact that YAML is a serialization format so it doesn't have many ways to reduce repetition. Now those issues coupled with the significant indentation makes YAML a mess, but those issues doesn't exist in Python.

What CI/CD system other than Jenkins uses a configuration format that isn't YAML?

Team City. But Jenkins is still king.

I think one either loves it or hates it..

Buildbot

yup and with proper IDE support as well

I've been making a custom build image in large part because of this. Local testing with Docker isn't the most fun, I have to manually manage the environment variables I pass on the command line, but it's way better than commit then wait for Docker to schedule.

Once it's working locally I push up and it's usually only a commit or two away from working.