I have a mostly vanilla instance of Magento 2.1 (previously Magento 2.0.x - where the problem also existed).
I have setup the Sitemap file to generate - and it is not doing so.
So far, for debugging purposes, I've modified Observer.php in the vendor directory to var_dump some variables while running to ensure that the cronjob is running, that it's picking up the email to send errors to, and to dump the errors so they'll show up in the log.
I have verified that it is running, however even with a custom entry into the errors array, the error email is not being sent. No other exceptions are being logged.
The deploy mode is set to production, no sitemap.xml file is being generated - what else should I do to determine the cause of the lack of a sitemap file?