Add better error messages when determining merge-base #2019

Job	Run time
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (ubuntu-latest, latest)	2m 31s
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (macos-latest, latest)	4m 31s
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (windows-latest, latest)	7m 11s
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (ubuntu-latest, default)	1m 20s
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (macos-latest, default)	2m 45s
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (windows-latest, default)	5m 40s
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (ubuntu-latest, nightly-latest)	2m 11s
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (macos-latest, nightly-latest)	3m 46s
Packaging: Config and input passed to the CLI (windows-latest, nightly-latest)	5m 16s
	35m 11s

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