afaict pytest.ini is discarded

The invocation in

_spawn

of

pytest_run.py

for me explicitly states to use the blank

pytest.ini

python /path/to/pytest-prep/CPython-3.6.5/<somehash> -c /path/to/pytest-prep/CPython-3.6.5/<somehash>/pytest.ini

right, which means whatever pytest.ini you put in there is discarded

ah yes, sorry, I thought you meant the default one was discarded.