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Do the compiler or the more “native” parts of the libraries (IO or functions that have access to black magic and the implementation) make assumptions about these laws? Will breaking them cause the impossible to happen?
Or do they just express a programming pattern — ie, the only person you’ll annoy by breaking them are people who use your code and didn’t expect you to be so careless?
The compiler doesn’t make any assumptions about the laws, however, if your instance does not obey the laws, it will not behave like a monad — it will do strange things and otherwise appear to your users to not work correctly (e.g. dropping values, or evaluating things in the wrong order).
Also, refactorings your users might make assuming the monad laws hold will obviously not be sound.