EPIC: Improve our use of ansible to use best practices

Quite a lot of our ansible use has been "improvised" over the years. We should revisit areas where we see improvements that can be made and try and "do the right thing" in each case to become a shining example of how to use ansible!

The issue does not name specific files, tests, or Ansible entry points. Start by inventorying the repository's Ansible usage and identifying one concrete area where a best-practice improvement is needed. Define a separate, bounded task with a clear completion check before starting work.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.