fix(ci): miscellaneous improvements to CI and tests #985

Job	Run time
lint	51s
build-splicer (24.10.0, stable, ubuntu-latest)	2m 0s
build-splicer (24.10.0, stable, windows-latest)	5m 38s
build (24.10.0, stable, ubuntu-latest, debug)	8s
build (24.10.0, stable, ubuntu-latest, release)	15s
test-example (24.10.0)	40s
test (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest, release)	8m 42s
test (24.10.0, windows-latest, debug)	10m 15s
test (24.10.0, macos-latest, debug)	10m 34s
test (24.10.0, macos-latest, release)	9m 26s
test (latest, ubuntu-latest, release)	8m 36s
test (latest, macos-latest, release)	10m 33s
test (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest, debug)	9m 30s
test (24.10.0, windows-latest, release)	10m 30s
test (latest, ubuntu-latest, debug)	9m 14s
test (latest, macos-latest, debug)	10m 34s
test (latest, windows-latest, release)	10m 31s
test (latest, windows-latest, debug)	10m 31s
	2h 8m 28s

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