Allow merging merge Requests even if the CI isn't done yet
If you add a last change to change a docstring, you would currently have to wait hours again for the CI to report before merging. If you make a change to a file that's not code (e.g. CONTRIBUTING.md), then the pipeline doesn't run and the MR cannot be merged.
Allowing for a bit more flexibility in merging MRs might of course lead to merging breaking changes from time to time. However these are caught anyway on the master branch and can be fixed quickly. In my experience from another project, this remains rare: people are generally worried and wait for the CI unless absolutely convinced this is fine to merge.
In the end it's about trading a few more fails on master
for a faster development process overall.