"VCS is truth" does not assert what it is, but rather its treatment in the system. There is no knowable truth in large-scale systems design.

Velocity is relative in physics, right? Relative to what? What's the frame of reference? Usually, we say, the Earth itself. VCS is that to software engineering, in this setup; there's movement and realities outside of VCS, but VCS is our zero; the tare. Everything is relative to the VCS. It is not truth through its nature; it is truth through how we treat it, how we build systems to interface with it, synchronize with it, etc.

All models are wrong, but some are useful.

I agree. This goes back to the recent post "don't use latest". If you don't pin everything you can't claim that VCS is truth. A built binary is the truth, whether that be a container image, go bin or whatever. Even then I wouldn't say it's the absolute truth. The whole system is the truth.