Backport PR #60636 on branch 2.3.x (TST(string dtype): Resolve xfail with apply returning an ndarray) #21178

Job	Run time
Linux-32-bit	20m 7s
Linux-Musl	22m 39s
python-dev (macOS-13)	36m 4s
python-dev (macOS-14)	13m 28s
python-dev (ubuntu-22.04)	25m 53s
python-dev (windows-latest)	27m 28s
macos-13 actions-310.yaml	39m 39s
macos-13 actions-311.yaml	40m 13s
macos-13 actions-312.yaml	46m 35s
macos-13 actions-39.yaml	51m 38s
macos-14 actions-310.yaml	25m 52s
macos-14 actions-311.yaml	29m 37s
macos-14 actions-312.yaml	27m 4s
windows-latest actions-311.yaml	42m 34s
macos-14 actions-39.yaml	30m 12s
windows-latest actions-312.yaml	47m 41s
windows-latest actions-39.yaml	38m 42s
windows-latest actions-310.yaml	39m 34s
ubuntu-latest actions-310.yaml	57m 28s
Copy-on-Write 3.10 (warnings)	29m 35s
Copy-on-Write 3.10	29m 47s
ubuntu-latest actions-311.yaml	50m 32s
Future infer strings (without pyarrow)	48m 8s
Locale: zh_CN	28m 50s
Copy-on-Write 3.11	28m 34s
Copy-on-Write 3.11 (warnings)	29m 16s
Locale: it_IT	28m 54s
Downstream Compat	8m 56s
Numpy Dev	22m 50s
Pyarrow Nightly	24m 1s
ubuntu-latest actions-312.yaml	38m 59s
Future infer strings	40m 31s
Copy-on-Write 3.12	31m 50s
Copy-on-Write 3.9 (warnings)	28m 25s
ubuntu-latest actions-39.yaml	51m 4s
Copy-on-Write 3.9	28m 29s
Minimum Versions	28m 38s
Pypy	7m 59s
	20h 47m 46s

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