There are $n$ open pull requests. One pull request is merged; now $n - 1$ developers will press the “sync” button on their PR, resulting in $n - 1$ pipeline runs.

Continue until all PRs are merged, and you end up with $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$ pipeline runs in total.

I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re in one of those well- managed teams where nobody merges anything until the end of the sprint where suddenly everyone gets stressed out, that hurts your bottom line in more ways than one.