fix(ci): miscellaneous improvements to CI and tests #980

Job	Run time
build-splicer (24.10.0, windows-latest)	14s
lint	51s
build-splicer (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest)	6s
build (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest, debug)	13s
build (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest, release)	9s
test-example (24.10.0)	5m 49s
test (24.10.0, windows-latest, release)	16m 53s
test (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest, debug)	15m 22s
test (latest, macos-latest, debug)	16m 22s
test (latest, ubuntu-latest, release)	14m 31s
test (24.10.0, macos-latest, release)	13m 46s
test (latest, windows-latest, release)	16m 51s
test (24.10.0, ubuntu-latest, release)	14m 46s
test (24.10.0, macos-latest, debug)	14m 41s
test (24.10.0, windows-latest, debug)	18m 51s
test (latest, windows-latest, debug)	19m 20s
test (latest, macos-latest, release)	13m 9s
test (latest, ubuntu-latest, debug)	15m 22s
	3h 17m 16s

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