fix(ci): miscellaneous improvements to CI and tests #988

Job	Run time
lint	48s
build-splicer (24.10.0, stable, windows-latest)	16s
build-splicer (24.10.0, stable, macos-latest)	3m 30s
build-splicer (24.10.0, stable, ubuntu-latest)	8s
build (24.10.0, stable, ubuntu-latest, release)	8s
build (24.10.0, stable, ubuntu-latest, debug)	8s
test-example (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest)	34s
test (24.10.0, windows-latest, debug)	10m 54s
test (24.10.0, windows-latest, release)	9m 44s
test (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest, debug)	9m 21s
test (24.10.0, macos-latest, release)	14m 39s
test (latest, ubuntu-latest, debug)	9m 22s
test (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest, release)	8m 43s
test (latest, macos-latest, debug)	9m 1s
test (latest, ubuntu-latest, release)	8m 47s
test (24.10.0, macos-latest, debug)	15m 27s
test (latest, macos-latest, release)	7m 29s
test (latest, windows-latest, release)	10m 18s
test (latest, windows-latest, debug)	10m 31s
	2h 9m 48s

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