C/QotW and notable changes - #8536

Node.js 20 is deprecated. The following actions target Node.js 20 but are being forced to run on Node.js 24: actions/checkout@v4, actions/upload-artifact@v4, py-actions/py-dependency-install@9c419aa98bfb42280bdae2b0a736befd9b01e3b1. For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-19-deprecation-of-node-20-on-github-actions-runners/