a few more preparatory improvements #5314

Job	Run time
Lint (ubuntu-latest)	1m 0s
Build documentation (ubuntu-latest)	1m 19s
Build and test (ubuntu-latest, 1.75)	5m 40s
Lint (windows-latest)	2m 15s
Build and test (ubuntu-latest, stable)	4m 39s
Test archives with a target runner	2m 4s
Build and test (macos-14, 1.75)	5m 37s
Build and test (macos-14, stable)	3m 41s
Build and test (windows-latest, 1.75)	8m 58s
Build and test (windows-latest, stable)	8m 49s
Test archives with a runner (destination) (ubuntu-24.04, ubuntu-latest)	10s
Test archives with a runner (destination) (windows-latest, windows-latest)	30s
	44m 42s

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