[plan] Upgrade golangci-lint from v1.62.2 to v2.7.2

[github-actions]

Overview

This tracking issue covers the upgrade of golangci-lint from v1.62.2 to v2.7.2, closing an 8-month version gap and unlocking 100+ new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements.

Source: Discussion #7356 - Go Module Review: golangci-lint

Why This Upgrade Matters

• Go 1.25 support (added in v2.4.0)
• 100+ improvements across bug fixes, features, and new linters
• Performance enhancements in v2 release line
• New linters including modernize, godoclint, and security improvements
• Automated migration via golangci-lint migrate command

Planned Tasks

This upgrade is broken down into focused, sequential tasks:

1. Upgrade golangci-lint dependency - Update go.mod and tools.go to v2.7.2
2. Run automated migration - Use golangci-lint migrate to convert configuration
3. Validate CI integration - Ensure CI pipeline works with v2
4. Enable new linters - Add modernize, gocritic, and other valuable linters
5. Optimize CI performance - Add incremental linting for faster runs

Migration Strategy

The v2 upgrade includes breaking changes, but the golangci-lint team provides an automated migration tool that handles most of the conversion automatically. Each task builds on the previous one to ensure a safe, incremental upgrade path.

Expected Benefits

• Modern Go 1.25 compatibility
• Access to 8 months of improvements
• Better code quality through new linters
• Faster CI runs through optimization
• Cleaner configuration format

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Related: #7356

AI generated by Plan Command for discussion #7356