Sync changes from main to net8 - Applied recent commits, updated versions & framework, preserved .csproj files (#384)

Co-authored-by: github-actions[bot] <github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: arcenox

src/Directory.Build.props

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
         <PackageTags>ticker;queue;cron;time;scheduler;fire-and-forget</PackageTags>
         <PackageIcon>icon.jpg</PackageIcon>
         <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
-        <Version>8.0.0-beta.16</Version>
+        <Version>8.0.0-beta.17</Version>
         <LangVersion>latest</LangVersion>
     </PropertyGroup>