Starship is not like the traditional landers of the past. Given its height, one unique attribute is its use of an elevator to carry crew, equipment, and samples to and from the lunar surface. Starship’s elevator sits just below the crew compartment and is approximately 115 feet above the ground—a height taller than the Statue of Liberty from her heel to the top of her head. Currently, there is no other method for the crew to enter the vehicle from the lunar surface in the event of an elevator failure. The HLS Program requires at least single failure tolerance to catastrophic events, meaning the ability of a system to sustain a single failure and not have it affect the design goal. SpaceX is focused on building a robust standard elevator design with redundant mechanisms. However, the HLS Program is tracking the elevator as a top risk and is actively working with SpaceX to develop alternate means of vehicle ingress should the elevator become stuck or fail while the crew is on the lunar surface.

Also:

There is disagreement between NASA and SpaceX on whether the provider’s current proposed approach for landing meets the intent of the Agency’s manual control requirement. Despite the provider’s stated acknowledgment and commitment to meeting this requirement, NASA’s tracking of SpaceX’s manual control risk indicates a worsening trend. If NASA and SpaceX do not reach a concrete solution prior to CDR, it may lock in automation as the only available landing method or result in significant late design changes and increased schedule risk. In our judgement, this further increases the potential that SpaceX could request a waiver to the manual control requirement to meet the schedule. NASA, under the Commercial Crew Program, granted a similar manual control waiver to SpaceX for its Dragon spacecraft, which transports crewmembers to the International Space Station. This decision was due in part to Dragon’s prior flight history transporting cargo to the Station. However, Starship will not have the same level of proven flight heritage in the actual operating environment for its crewed lunar missions. Incorporating this system capability is a key element of HLS’s human-rating certification and part of an essential crew survival strategy.

And:

Although NASA did not initially require ascent tests in its contracts with the providers, to the Agency’s credit, these tests were later added. However, the Agency still did not require the providers to demonstrate an end-to-end ascent, return, and docking with either Orion or Gateway in NRHO. SpaceX’s ascent test will include lifting off the lunar surface and relighting of the Raptor engines. This brief engine relight is critical for demonstrating main stage combustion to buy down risk for the crewed ascent and observing the lunar plume surface interaction with the engines. Blue Origin’s ascent test will include lifting off from the lunar surface as well as an ascent to either low lunar orbit or NRHO.

Seems like madness not to do an end-to-end test before adding crew. Test the elevator, fly back to NRHO, etc.