I understand exactly what you mean, and I used to have the same negative attitude towards "change detectors", but I have actually changed my mind about them and come to appreciate their value.
I suspect the root cause of your headache with them is that you hate to see tests break when you change your code, probably because you view fixing the test as costly and a distraction.
But I've come to see breaking "change detectors" as a source of comfort, sort of confirming what I expect my change to do.
What you need to get there is to make test "fixing" more agile and less costly. I do understand that in a large shared codebase, that is easier said than done, but on smaller projects that's easier to do.
I suspect the root cause of your headache with them is that you hate to see tests break when you change your code, probably because you view fixing the test as costly and a distraction.
But I've come to see breaking "change detectors" as a source of comfort, sort of confirming what I expect my change to do.
What you need to get there is to make test "fixing" more agile and less costly. I do understand that in a large shared codebase, that is easier said than done, but on smaller projects that's easier to do.