Separate global CI freshness failures from hotfix scope

A repository-wide time-based preflight can make a healthy hotfix pull request red even when changed-code checks pass. Read the earliest failing job, classify every red job as root cause, cascade, or independent infrastructure failure, and confirm changed-code gates separately.

Keep unrelated freshness maintenance out of the hotfix. Restore the repository prerequisite through its authoritative change, then rerun the bounded pull request. This does not justify bypassing required checks, treating skipped jobs as green, or merging before the prerequisite is restored.