diff --git a/maintainers/scripts/check-cherry-picks.sh b/maintainers/scripts/check-cherry-picks.sh
index 6253b97f38d26..e7ffe2bf4c73d 100755
--- a/maintainers/scripts/check-cherry-picks.sh
+++ b/maintainers/scripts/check-cherry-picks.sh
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ while read new_commit_sha ; do
 
           $range_diff_common --color
 
+          echo "Note this should not necessarily be treated as a hard fail, but a reviewer's attention should" \
+            "be drawn to it and github actions have no way of doing that but to raise a 'failure'"
           problem=1
         else
           echo "  ✔ $original_commit_sha highly similar to $new_commit_sha"