But this isn’t doing ‘intelligent’ caching, just like go doesn’t do intelligent test checking. If the test binary changes (I think that implies basically any change in the package) the tests rerun.
Before 1.10 `go test` used to re-run tests unconditionally.
Since 1.10 it'll avoid re-running them in some cases.
Neither me nor the announcement claims "intelligence".
The rules are simple and effective which is the Go Way.
While you could try to make even better, more "intelligent" rules for determining wether to re-run the tests, those would quickly run into engineering complexity chasing diminishing returns. That is not the Go Way.
Historically the argument against them have been about adding needless complexity. I wonder who was asking for this and how they got it prioritized.
It was implemented by rsc subsequently, after discussion on the issue: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/75631
I'm not sure what you're trying to insinuate.
This makes it wildly different from language changes, which require a lot more consideration.