I like the premise of something like Dagger, being an Actions CI that can run locally and uses Docker. I don't know if there's an up-and-coming "safe" open-source alternative that does not have that threat of a VC time bomb hanging over it.

Docker and to some extent, however unwieldy, Kubernetes at least allow you to run anywhere, anytime without locking you into a third party.

A "pipeline language" that can run anywhere, even locally, sets up dependency services and initial data, runs tests and avoids YAML overload would be a much needed addition to software engineering.