Fix release workflow and some CI improvements

[tlifschitz]

• Automate Python Development Releases:
  Set the development version number based on the count of commits since the last bump of the VERSION file (see setup.py).

• Version Number Sanity Checks:
  Added checks in scripts/check_version.sh to ensure version consistency across the repository.

• Refined Release Workflow:
  Improved the release process by updating broken action versions and merging all workflows into a single ci_release.yml.

• Rust Publishing:
  Implemented Rust publishing in the release workflow. Ensure the CRATES_IO_API_TOKEN secret is configured in the repository environment.

• Improve Test Build Runtime:
  Reduced build time by compiling only the static versions of all libraries. Both static and shared libraries will still be built for releases.

• Update Release Instructions: