I found this thread eventually trying to find a solution to my use case, where the web UI would not be helpful, and additionally I’m hoping to hear a bit more about the reasoning. In case anyone else stumbles on this thread with the same use case, I’ve provided a link to that thread:
Automated scan on new code – How do I specify the quality gate for the first scan to use? - SonarQube - Sonar Community (sonarsource.com)