I have two projects (ClinicWise and WhenWise) with ~30000 raw Selenium steps, have been maintaining well for a few years. Plus a few other apps with less test steps (around 10K). Not overnight builds. I run regression tests (all tests) multiple times a day in BuildWise CT server. Again, in my spare time. Our CT process is super simple, fast, reliable using BuildWise CT server (with 7 agents).
A recent World Quality report (maybe 2021 )says, testing from a user perspective (top tier). Check out "CI at facebook" presentation (my annoated article). If doing automated UI Testing ( top testing pyramid) is properly, the benefits can only realized then.
I authored one book on API testing, and Ruby is great for API testing. I do API testing , but I like End-to-End Testing. I can maintain several large suite at the same time, again, in my spare time. When covering all user stories with UI testing, life is different. Easy, Relax, Fun! So that I can devleop and maintain more apps, in my spare time.
