chore: cherry pick from main to v2

[fseldow]

Description

update v2 with latest main

Which issue(s) does this PR resolve?

Fixes #

Type of change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• Helm chart change (any edit/addition/update that is necessary for changes merged to the main branch)
• This change requires a documentation update

Testing and verification

Checklist

• Does the affected code have corresponding tests?
• Are the changes documented, not just with inline documentation, but also with conceptual documentation such as an overview of a new feature, or task-based documentation like a tutorial? Consider if this change should be announced on your project blog.
• Does this introduce breaking changes that would require an announcement or bumping the major version?
• Do all new files have appropriate license header?

Post merge requirements

• MAINTAINERS: manually trigger the "Publish Package" workflow after merging any PR that indicates Helm Chart Change

[fseldow]

Superseded by #2749, which performs the same main→v2 sync on a dedicated branch (sync/main-to-v2-20260720) so that main is never modified. Conflicts resolved there.