diff --git a/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py b/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
index 6600b44759ec..961dbde95c1c 100644
--- a/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
+++ b/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
@@ -1254,20 +1254,54 @@ def stop(self, immediate=False, ps_assert_metric_no_errors=False, fail_on_endpoi
 
         Unless of course, some stopping failed, in that case, all remaining child processes are leaked.
         """
-        self.endpoints.stop_all(fail_on_endpoint_errors)
+
+        # the commonly failing components have special try-except behavior,
+        # trying to get us to actually shutdown all processes over easier error
+        # reporting.
+
+        raise_later = None
+        try:
+            self.endpoints.stop_all(fail_on_endpoint_errors)
+        except Exception as e:
+            raise_later = e
 
         # Stop storage controller before pageservers: we don't want it to spuriously
         # detect a pageserver "failure" during test teardown
         self.storage_controller.stop(immediate=immediate)
 
+        stop_later = []
+        metric_errors = []
+
         for sk in self.safekeepers:
             sk.stop(immediate=immediate)
         for pageserver in self.pageservers:
             if ps_assert_metric_no_errors:
-                pageserver.assert_no_metric_errors()
-            pageserver.stop(immediate=immediate)
+                try:
+                    pageserver.assert_no_metric_errors()
+                except Exception as e:
+                    metric_errors.append(e)
+                    log.error(f"metric validation failed on {pageserver.id}: {e}")
+            try:
+                pageserver.stop(immediate=immediate)
+            except RuntimeError:
+                stop_later.append(pageserver)
         self.broker.stop(immediate=immediate)
 
+        # TODO: for nice logging we need python 3.11 ExceptionGroup
+        for ps in stop_later:
+            ps.stop(immediate=True)
+
+        if raise_later is not None:
+            raise raise_later
+
+        for error in metric_errors:
+            raise error
+
+        if len(stop_later) > 0:
+            raise RuntimeError(
+                f"{len(stop_later)} out of {len(self.pageservers)} pageservers failed to stop gracefully"
+            )
+
     @property
     def pageserver(self) -> NeonPageserver:
         """