But feel free to run against the various compilers through godbolt. [0] They won't optimise the branch away. Access to a volatile, must be preserved, in the order that they exist. No optimisation, UB or otherwise, is allowed to impede that. Because an access is a side-effect.
I quoted the C standard, first. Not compiler behaviour.
I showed where it requires the compiler not to optimise this.
How about, instead of one-line throwaway disagreements, you point out where they are permitted to do this, instead?
> A compliant compiler is only free to optimise away, where it can determine there are no side-effects
A compliant compiler is also allowed to assume UB cannot occur.