tweak env/reqs to utilize latest version(s) of PCMDI/cmor

[ilaflott]

Describe your changes

• python version is now allowed to be >=3.11, we currently seem to be comfortably landing on 3.12
• cmor version is now 3.14 or greater
• noaa-gfdl::fre-nctools removed from all requirements, tests requiring it now check for the appropriate executables using shutil.which
• python, pip, setuptools and wheel all needed to be specified in requirements: build: for meta.yaml to avoid a build issue on more recent python/conda versions that we are now starting to develop compatibility for
• some light clean up in test files that i needed to keep an eye on for failures
• certain messages produced upon failing assert checks were added and/or tweaked to be more helpful
• also a minor docstring or two added
• documentation generally updated as minimally as possible where applicable

Issue ticket number and link (if applicable)

see Development tab on the right side of this PR screen

Checklist before requesting a review

• I ran my code
• I tried to make my code readable
• I tried to comment my code
• [ ] I wrote a new test, if applicable
• I wrote new instructions/documentation, if applicable
• I ran pytest and inspected it's output
• I ran pylint and attempted to implement some of it's feedback
• No print statements; all user-facing info uses logging module

[ilaflott]

currently failing? oui, but given that environment creation for fre-cli has taken basically >5 minutes for a long time, the current env creation step is now taking <2 minutes

[ilaflott]

this will close #663 because it will close #709 . it will not technically close #708 , but it does keep #708 from blocking #663

[ilaflott]

apparently, using numpy=2.* will be a bigger transition than i thought, so this PR will keep the numpy==1.26.* pin for now. spun up issue #711 to track the friction

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 82.85%. Comparing base (70513c0) to head (31a3b10).

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #707      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   85.35%   82.85%   -2.50%     
==========================================
  Files          68       68              
  Lines        4520     4520              
==========================================
- Hits         3858     3745     -113     
- Misses        662      775     +113     

Flag	Coverage Δ
unittests	82.85% <ø> (-2.50%)	⬇️

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[ilaflott]

Note that this includes changes that are breaking for test_cloud_runner workflows in NOAA-GDFL/fre-workflows