Runtime checks that simulate frontend request not reliable in AJAX based workflow

[felixarntz]

When running runtime checks like Enqueued_Scripts_Scope_Check or Enqueued_Styles_Scope_Check using the AJAX based flow, they may not detect problems correctly. A crucial issue is that AJAX requests are considered "WP Admin", so functions like is_admin() will return true. It's common for plugins to have a check like ! is_admin() around initialization logic that is specifically for the frontend, which means any such behaviors will not be spotted.

You can verify this by running the "Performance" checks against contact-form-7 for example, which enqueues scripts and stylesheets across the entire site.

The AJAX based flow won't detect that - only the WP-CLI based flow will. The latter is because WP-CLI does not run in "WP Admin context".

I'm not sure there's a way to override what is_admin() returns... But worth thinking through this.