Give this man a node.js application with 100000 dependencies where an update from package version 34.2.4 to 34.2.5 breaks everything because the developers decided to change the order of parameters in one function just for fun.
aka "totally unknown environment" which you "need feedback about what works and what doesn’t"
one of the drop-dead showstopper tests in the τεχ release process since that time has been the 'τεχ torture test'; it's an enormous random τεχ document which has to produce byte-identical output on each new version of τεχ for it to be released, unless he can justify each difference. so he's not opposed to automated testing, he just tends to do it at a larger granularity