We've been using environments for a while now for our dev and test instances. I like being able to go to the environment and seeing the commits and work items associated with the particular build/release but can't find a way to export them. Does anyone know of a way to export the workitems?
Using environments you also loose the ability to see which build/release a ticket went out in or have I missed something?
Your first and second question, kind of, have the same answer.
In short, you don't want to be using Environments to view which work items are associated with a release.
Azure DevOps has a built-in mechanism to view work items directly within the Release or Pipelines page (Depending on whether you're using classic or YAML).
Here is a great guide published by Microsoft regarding how work pipeline-based work item linking works, as well as how to retrieve work items associated with a release:
Update:
Specifically regarding how to view linked work items in Pipelines. You'll want to look under "Related":
Clicking on "x work items" will show you the full list of work items:
