Consider deprecating old routes API

**Description**
Currently middleware lacks proper timeout support.

**Proposed solution**
Add configurable timeout with sensible defaults.

**Priority**: Low/Medium

Start by locating the middleware and old routes API entry points, then inspect how requests currently handle timeouts and whether related tests exist. Define the expected configurable timeout and sensible default from the existing behavior; done means the timeout can be configured and its behavior is covered by tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.