ci(github): fix path filtering of required but skipped workflows

[petermetz]

1. Migrated from the stock GitHub Actions yaml syntax to using this custom
   action[1] that allows us to skip the running of jobs based on path filtering.
   The difference compared to the old solution is that this one won't just
   skip the checks that are marked as required but it will pass them instead.
2. This is a suboptimal solution because we have to run each job so that
   the code can be checked out and then examined for changes. This uses
   resources that we should not have to expend, but currently there's no way
   to avoid this because of the way the GitHub handles required checks that
   are skipped (which cause a deadlock on the CI at the currently).
3. There is a relevant discussion thread about the problem here [2] which
   should be voted on heavily so that it gets the necessary attention from
   the product teams at GitHub.

Quoting the relevant part of the GitHub documentation directly:

Handling skipped but required checks
Warning: If a workflow is skipped due to path filtering, branch
filtering or a commit message, then checks associated with that workflow
will remain in a "Pending" state. A pull request that requires those
checks to be successful will be blocked from merging.

For this reason you should not use path or branch filtering to skip
workflow runs if the workflow is required. For more information, see
"Skipping workflow runs" and "Required workflows."

If, however, a job within a workflow is skipped due to a conditional,
it will report its status as "Success". For more information, see
"Using conditions to control job execution."

Source (link broken into multiple lines to avoid it being longer than
100 characters):

https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/
collaborating-on-repositories-with-code-quality-features/
troubleshooting-required-status-checks#handling-skipped-but-required-checks

[1] https://github.com/dorny/paths-filter
[2] https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/44490

Pull Request Requirements

• Rebased onto upstream/main branch and squashed into single commit to help maintainers review it more efficient and to avoid spaghetti git commit graphs that obfuscate which commit did exactly what change, when and, why.
• Have git sign off at the end of commit message to avoid being marked red. You can add -s flag when using git commit command. You may refer to this link for more information.
• Follow the Commit Linting specification. You may refer to this link for more information.

Character Limit

• Pull Request Title and Commit Subject must not exceed 72 characters (including spaces and special characters).
• Commit Message per line must not exceed 80 characters (including spaces and special characters).

A Must Read for Beginners
For rebasing and squashing, here's a must read guide for beginners.

[petermetz]

@sandeepnRES Thank you very much for the help and the optimizations!