I would appreciate some advice on the best way to solve the following problem.

Replying to self with some updates based on further investigations.

The lack of pre-commit like hook during a rebase is documented in a
few places (https://adamj.eu/tech/2022/11/07/pre-commit-run-hooks-rebase/
to list one). The -x flag provides a means by which I can
retrospectively amend the "previous" commit if that is not clean. Not
ideal, but a solution of sorts.

However, the main problem appears to be the lack of "hook" to do
something when git rebase detects conflicts.

Ideally, I would like to have a hook be called when git rebase detects
a conflict, a hook in which I could attempt to "recover" the
situation. If that hook failed to fully recover the situation, git
rebase would fail as it currently does. Otherwise, it would be able to
continue as normal.

My use of git is pretty basic, so part of me feels like I can't be the
first person to run into this problem!

As ever, any pointers are greatly appreciated.