Improve archive release tests

[uttam282005]

Fixes #4483

Summary

This PR improves the robustness of release archive tests by moving all archive discovery and extraction logic into the Python release test script and enforcing loud failure modes.

Previously, archive unpacking and validation were split between the CI workflow and shell commands, which allowed broken or missing app archives to pass CI undetected. This change ensures that release tests fail deterministically if archives are missing, broken, or not tested.

What this PR changes

• Moves archive discovery and unpacking logic from GitHub Actions shell steps into the Python release test script.
• Ensures the script fails loudly when:
  • no app archive is found,
  • archive extraction fails,
• Simplifies CI workflows by delegating all validation responsibility to the Python script.
• Improves error messages and exit behavior for release-blocking failures.

Why this is needed

This addresses a class of failures where broken app archives could pass CI without being properly tested, as reported in #4469. Centralizing archive handling in Python makes the release process easier to reason about, easier to test locally, and less error-prone across platforms.

How this was tested

• Local testing of the release test script with:
  • valid archives,
  • deliberately broken archives,
  • missing archive scenarios.
• Local workflow validation using act to verify artifact wiring and failure behavior.
• Verified that failures result in non-zero exits and clear error output.

Tasks

• Reviewed contribution guidelines
• PR is descriptively titled and links the original issue above
• Tests pass (validated failure and success paths locally and via CI)
• Commits are in a uniquely-named feature branch and has no merge conflicts
• Updated documentation pages (not applicable)
• Updated CHANGELOG.rst (not applicable)