fix: treat programmatic null input values as empty string - #1329

Node.js 20 is deprecated. The following actions target Node.js 20 but are being forced to run on Node.js 24: actions/cache/restore@v4, actions/checkout@v4, actions/github-script@60a0d83039c74a4aee543508d2ffcb1c3799cdea. For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-19-deprecation-of-node-20-on-github-actions-runners/