what about just to detect that retroreflectors are on the Moon, so no distance measurements are needed. Couldn't amateur just fire the laser for a long enough time to get sufficient reflection back to confirm this?
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Query vague; be specific for better results.
No — continuous beam drowns signal in noise; pulse width needed to filter background photons. Reddit thread covers why.
Still no — even with extended exposure, the signal-to-noise problem remains insurmountable. The Reddit thread explains that without short pulse widths you can't filter background photons, drowning out the ~1-2 reflected photons. Continuous beam just adds more noise, not more signal.