Checkpoints sounds like an interesting idea, and one I think we'll benefit from if they can make it useful.
I tried a similar(-ish) thing last year at https://github.com/imjasonh/cnotes (a Claude hook to write conversations to git notes) but ended up not getting much out of it. Making it integrated into the experience would have helped, I had a chrome extension to display it in the GitHub UI but even then just stopped using it eventually.
Ah you were 7mo ahead of me doing the same and also coming to a similar conclusion. The idea holds value but in practice it isnt felt.
https://github.com/eqtylab/y