GEOPY-2049: merge release branch to develop (+ GEOPY-2128)

[sebhmg]

followup of GEOPY-2049 - environment for coming pre-release, merging back to develop branch

Same as #190 + bump version + relock onto develop branches
include fix for GEOPY-2128

[codecov]

Codecov Report

All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests ✅

Project coverage is 90.33%. Comparing base (cc3fe1c) to head (0e6fe06).
Report is 21 commits behind head on develop.

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##           develop     #189      +/-   ##
===========================================
+ Coverage    90.32%   90.33%   +0.01%     
===========================================
  Files           87       87              
  Lines         5042     5051       +9     
  Branches       642      643       +1     
===========================================
+ Hits          4554     4563       +9     
  Misses         326      326              
  Partials       162      162              

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
simpeg_drivers/__init__.py	86.66% <100.00%> (ø)
simpeg_drivers/uijson.py	100.00% <100.00%> (ø)

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[Copilot]

Copilot reviewed 20 out of 20 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (3)

tests/uijson_test.py:51

• [nitpick] Consider adding an inline comment to explain the choice of _current_version().public, ensuring clarity on how pre-release variants are normalized for testing purposes.

if version is None:
            version = _current_version().public

simpeg_drivers/uijson.py:35

• [nitpick] The warning message now encloses version values in quotes; please ensure that tests capturing warning substrings remain robust to this updated formatting.

if input_version != package_version:

pyproject.toml:3

• Ensure that the new version string '0.4.0-alpha.1' is consistently used throughout the project and adheres to the expected pre-release naming conventions.

version = "0.4.0-alpha.1"