[ttaylorr-oai]

Skipping negotiation sorts its queue by commit date, but can insert parents before parsing them. Their dates are still zero, so older ref tips take precedence. This can delay offering a recent common ancestor.

Parse previously unseen parents in push_parent() before adding them to the queue. Parents that cannot be parsed stay out of the queue. The skip-distance rules remain unchanged.

Add a regression test with a topic branch one commit ahead of master and 32 old ref tips. Master's parent must be the second commit offered, right after the topic tip.

The source branch starts at the fork's master so the release controller can replay the patch. The patch is unchanged by the rebase (git range-diff reports equality). A separate commit retains the reviewed CI action pins.

Validation:

• The regression fails before the fix and passes after it under protocols v0 and v2, with and without commit graphs.
• t5552-skipping-fetch-negotiator.sh and t5500-fetch-pack.sh pass.
• The combined release candidate, including http: keep discovery credentials when curl sanitizes the URL #142 and http-fetch: reuse completed packs before downloading #149, passes all 249 tests across t5540, t5549, t5550, t5552, t5563, and t5702, with HTTP support enabled.
• Full staging CI passed for that same candidate: 45 jobs passed, with two expected skips.