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So, to some extent it comes with a track record out of the box.
Not really, because you can't tell what it will accept that others haven't accepted because the valid chain is only built upon the accepted transactions and blocks. It's therefore only the confirmation of the sunny case, not the rainy cases.
If you are using your node to validate payments, the main feature you have it for is rejection - the rainy cases. "No, this is NOT a valid payment (or block)".
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It doesn't have to go through 18 years of transactions. It could take a widely accepted checkpoint and just verify from there. With eg utreexo, it's easy and cheap. My half baked node spec (just a spec mind you) does this.
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There is an interesting quality of bitcoin node software in that in order to get to the current chaintip, it has to go through 18 years of transactions perfectly. So, to some extent it comes with a track record out of the box.
But, the current chain is a known quantity and getting a node to reach the current chain tip is not the same exercise as maintaining the same chaintip from this point forward.
It's the kind of thing where not only do I want to see it function successfully for a couple of years, but I also want it to function with lots of users.