[docs] Publish and maintain the v1.2.0 hardening workflow

[StatPan]

Summary

• Quality policy, release blockers, and Issue -> PR workflow must remain visible in the repo.

Acceptance Criteria

• CONTRIBUTING.md, release docs, and templates stay aligned with the enforced workflow.
• New blocker work is tracked under the v1.2.0 Hardening milestone.
• PRs link to issues and describe compatibility/release impact consistently.

[StatPan]

Status update on 2026-04-21:\n\nCurrent repo process is mostly in place:\n- documents the strict pytest/warning/skip gate and Issue -> PR -> Merge flow.\n- blocker work is tracked under the milestone.\n- the merged hardening PR was linked to issue #2 via PR #9.\n\nWhy this stays open:\n- still describes PyPI trusted publishing (OIDC) as the active publish path.\n- The live workflow currently publishes via fallback again, because trusted publishing validation failed.\n\nConclusion:\n- Keep this issue open until release docs are brought back in sync with the actual workflow and the intended long-term publishing path is documented explicitly.

[StatPan]

Status update on 2026-04-21:

Current repo process is mostly in place:

• CONTRIBUTING.md documents the strict pytest/warning/skip gate and Issue -> PR -> Merge flow.
• blocker work is tracked under the v1.2.0 Hardening milestone.
• the merged hardening PR was linked to issue [hardening] Verify multi-platform wheel builds and trusted publishing before v1.2.0 #2 via PR [hardening] enforce release blocker gates #9.

Why this stays open:

• RELEASING.md still describes PyPI trusted publishing (OIDC) as the active publish path.
• The live workflow currently publishes via PYPI_API_TOKEN fallback again, because trusted publishing validation failed.

Conclusion:

• Keep this issue open until release docs are brought back in sync with the actual workflow and the intended long-term publishing path is documented explicitly.