fix: close UX/robustness gaps found in codebase audit - #548

Node.js 20 is deprecated. The following actions target Node.js 20 but are being forced to run on Node.js 24: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5, actions/setup-go@40f1582b2485089dde7abd97c1529aa768e1baff, actions/upload-artifact@ea165f8d65b6e75b540449e92b4886f43607fa02. For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-19-deprecation-of-node-20-on-github-actions-runners/