Currently, there is no way to disable ExpensiveCombines when doing a standalone opt -instcombine run, as that's the default, and the opt option can currently only be used to force enable, not to force disable. The only way to disable expensive combines is via -O1 or -O2, but that of course also runs the rest of the kitchen sink...
Noticed while looking into https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44541. Another issue I noticed is that NewPM always enables expensive combines, whiles legacy PM on does so at -O3. Anyone know whether that was an intentional choice or an oversight?