feat!: drop support for end-of-life python versions

currently, we support python >= 3.8

this means, we do support python versions that are end-of-life. see https://devguide.python.org/versions/

* py38 - EOL 2024-10-07
* ... TBC ...

## proposal 

- drop support for EOL py-versions
- raise the min-version of supported python to the latest feature-release of a reasonable new py-version
- migrate code and tooling to new min-version