refactor/channel-and-misc-improvements #492

Job	Run time
unit-test (ubuntu-latest, 1.16)	1m 17s
unit-test (ubuntu-latest, 1.17)	1m 11s
unit-test (ubuntu-latest, 1.18)	1m 16s
unit-test (ubuntu-latest, 1.19)	57s
unit-test (ubuntu-latest, 1.20)	1m 31s
unit-test (macos-latest, 1.16)	1m 48s
unit-test (macos-latest, 1.17)	3m 16s
unit-test (macos-latest, 1.18)	3m 11s
unit-test (macos-latest, 1.19)	2m 0s
unit-test (macos-latest, 1.20)	1m 52s
functional-test (ubuntu-latest, 1.20, docker)	2m 33s
	20m 52s

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