Rework the proxy steps, such that they are retried up to three times if needed

Also, remove a bunch of flake errors that we are not causing

added 8 commits

• a7f2a2ce...6a37ec68 - 7 commits from branch develop
• 070f4a7f - Rework the proxy steps, such that they are retried up to three times if needed

Compare with previous version

enabled an automatic merge when the pipeline for 070f4a7f succeeds

merged