Update meta-configuration handling #1728

Job	Run time
unit_tests (3.8)	1m 34s
util_tests (3.8)	1m 11s
util_tests (3.9)	1m 13s
unit_tests (3.9)	1m 30s
util_tests (3.10)	1m 8s
unit_tests (3.10)	1m 48s
unit_tests (3.11)	1m 37s
util_tests (3.11)	1m 16s
unit_tests (3.12)	1m 42s
util_tests (3.12)	1m 26s
docker_build_tests / docker_build_tests	13m 52s
py_build_tests / py_build_tests	12s
py_build_tests / relative_path_tests	10s
	28m 39s

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