Four different observations
A system can request a change, receive an acknowledgement, read back the requested setting and still fail to produce the intended physical result. That is not a reason to discard software checks. It is a reason to describe precisely what each check established.
Keep the evidence attached
In the energy project, software qualification, deployment receipts, reported settings and measured outcomes belong to separate evidence categories. A healthy process does not prove an overnight charging transition. The same habit helps elsewhere in the rack: a running media container is not a playback test, and a deployed speech service is not caller acceptance.