I'm building a product in the same space[1] and, in my opinion, the core problem is that small tasks meant to run as workers end up spinning up a full 64GB server instead. My approach is to separate lightweight checks (e.g. "is this commit tagged as version-*?") into workflows that run on Cloudflare Workers. They're fast, cheap, and highly available. The heavier CI/CD work can then run on usual docker contaiers/VMs.

1: https://codeinput.com/products/workflow-automation - The product is still in development. Happy to connect with anyone interested in beta testing or contributing ideas!