> I just assumed whatever optimizer SciPy uses would be reliable That's usually a bad assumption for wrapped math libraries outside of the foundational ones li

> I just assumed whatever optimizer SciPy uses would be reliable That's usually a bad assumption for wrapped math libraries outside of the foundational ones like numpy. They tend to have a pretty low ratio of "mileage" to complexity in the first place, it's easy for the project to become a zombie without users realizing, and the layers of challenges to fixing issues leave many of them unresolved. If you need reliability, you'll have to deliberately choose software that's mature and actively maintained.