Yes, thanks for sharing.
My turn to 'piggy back' ....
Plugins ... are always a problem ... maybe some improvements to core Moodle are needed ..
1. Notifications screen needs a link to Environment Check.
2. the environment check needs to be included in a task that updates itself.
3. the environment check needs to include a plugins check ... with the ability for admin to add a url for the root of the plugin repo. (other open sourced projects actually have that ability now - at least their command line scripts). Wonder if moosh does?
And, even if, the above are included in core and are accurate, there is nothing that can prevent issues with updates/upgrades plugins. However, there is progress in mdeploy ... in that if one attempts to update a plugin and the update fails, there is now a 'Cancel' ... which is supposed to revert back (roll back if you will) the plugin to the previously functioning version of the plugin - available in 3.3.x.
As with any open source project, there is always room for improvement ... just a matter of consensus, $, and time to implement.
'spirit of sharing', Ken