[a9h74j]

Yes, clearly I2C, properly employed, adds far more to observability than it might, in principle, very rarely take away. And of course: a) Oxide is not the first to use the same components; b) Oxide is past the point of bring-up problems with a previously untried component; c) Oxide will have done all sorts of power cycling and confidence-building; so d) common-mode failures can likely be ruled out; and e) (I presume) any rare bus hang or error can itself be detected and reported.