When indeed; a well-maintained testnet explorer and open APIs are necessary for writing tests/automation and identifying issues before shipping features on the Zcash mainnet.
Even the Thorchain integration work is blocked as it requires mandatory testnet phase deployments, sochain.com dropped support for Zcash last year and there is no reliable alternative present.
My team is looking forward to designing testnet APIs and running reliable infra as part of our 2023 grant. Nighthawk Apps Zcash Development Fund 2023