Drop Python 3.8 about conda-forge-pinning-feedstock HOT 9 OPEN

We had a bit of discussion on this topic in some place (maybe the private core chat?). The gist of it (and if we never find a reference, happy to take this simply as the expression of solely my opinion) was to keep Python 3.8 as part of the CI matrix as long as we don't see issues with the load.

In the end, this comes down to the decision on whether we, as conda-forge, want to follow CPython's schedule for support or NumPy's NEP29 which is a bit stricter in dropping old versions.

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This was discussed in one of the recent core calls, and should be in the minutes. While we're free to adapt our choice as necessary, there was a clear desire to match CPython's support window, as long as it doesn't blow out our resources.

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Well offline the other day there was also a discussion about the CI queue getting larger. So think it is worth raising what resources we want to commit to this

Put another way every decision where we commit resources to one item means another item may not get them. Not to say it is exactly zero sum (we can ask for more resources from those who make asks of us), but there is some trade off that we need to be considering and the impact it has on what we are able to do

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Yes, we're all aware of the resource constraints, but not nearly all of the growth in our consumption is due to another python version (e.g. we dropped pypy3.8, so the full matrix is still 6 builds); there's also an overall growth of conda-forge in terms of packages, and some stacks just have 2-3+h builds across multiple feedstocks, so if those get touched by a migration it's a big hit (and the combination of py312 + boost + protobuf is quite the whammy migration-wise).

@jezdez mentioned that we should be able to get the pool from azure pipelines to be increased, which would obviate that discussion, but in any case, dropping 3.8 was considered having a broad impact on the wider ecosystem, so we decided to try to keep supporting it (with a caveat that it's best effort and we can change our minds of course), and see how things develop.

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