What is the absolute minimum for a merge request? Is it that the code compiles? Because that's a super low bar. A bar still missed by some...

Imo, yes. It should at least compile.

*JS devs breathing heavily*

From my experience in teams the requirements have been:

1. It must compile

2. The code must be clean

at the very minimum

and finally:

3. The code must be performant

in later releases.

@Lensflare all my codebases had sanity check to make sure it's building when you commit

on the other hand, it's not because I'm creating a PR that it's finished. A draft should be marked as such though

It totally depends on the project.
It should pass the CI tests. If there are none then it is a project problem not the MR.
I have several repos where I self approve an MR and merge. It works... mostly.
With more people in the project you have to change acceptance criteria.

nothing merged into master should break master. That's the only real requirement. All other requirements are fluid and change based on if the deadline is in literally 10 minutes or in 5 months. But the code has to compile and must work once in master.

Everything you were forced to ignore in that request becomes Tech Debt and will be fixed in the next release, or more likely never ;)

Follow conventional commits and expected minimum will be super clear