I am working on a rheem heat pump. I have replaced the board and the defrost sensor, I can jump the test pins an the unit goes into defrost and jumps right back out.. (I did this 3 days ago when it was 65 degrees outside.) You would think that the unit is working correctly. BUT, it is sitting here with 2 inches of ice on the entire condensing coil. The temperature is 38 today.

Are rheem and Rudd boards notorious for being bad out of the box?

Not notorious but not unheard of either. No better or worse than anybody else's boards.
I suggest you defrost manually & check the charge.

Thanks I Have Her Working.