Is there some way to configure NFSv4 not to silently corrupt data or surface transient network errors to userspace?

(Correct NFSv3 implementations block forever, which is the best of three bad alternatives.)

https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1179643

NFSv4 should never do that, and I've never seen it happen.

Then again, if you're using file locking on a distributed filesystem at non-trivial scale you're in for a big world of hurt anyway. Source: I was a developer and maintainer of exactly such a beast for over a decade.