>nobody reads intermediate commit messages one by one on a PR, period.

>Don’t waste your time writing stuff for no one.

I've thought about that as I continue to write them. I think I can justify it by saying they are mostly for me. Can I describe what I'm trying to do with a specific push into a few items. It let's me reflect if I'm waiting too long between commits or if my ideas are getting too spread apart and really should be in two different branches that each have their own PRs. Then there is the rare case on a slower project where an item gets deprioritized and I come back to it weeks or even months later. Having the messages help me catch back up to speed.

As such, I find the 20 seconds or so to type out 1 to 2 sentences to be worthwhile, even if the ones reviewing the eventual PR never check. I'm also not above throwing in a "ditto" or "fixed issue" when a single commit really is that small or insignificant.

>“every commit must compile”

I agree with your take this is overzealous, but to expand upon my previous point, if I know a commit on a branch won't compile (say just had something else come up and need to swap focus for a few days), then I'll try to make sure I call that out in my last message just in case anyone else happens to get put on the project.

If I were to summarize my approach, treat PR messages seriously, but treat branch commit messages like sticky notes that will likely end up in the trash by week's end.