Partially merge changes suggested by code review in #791

[nikosbosse]

Description

This PR includes some of the changes suggested by #791. I'm splitting these out so I can already merge them. That way we can leave #791 open and I also don't accidentally fix things on main that were already fixed in this PR.

Checklist

• [ ] My PR is based on a package issue and I have explicitly linked it.
• [ ] I have included the target issue or issues in the PR title as follows: issue-number: PR title
• [ ] I have tested my changes locally.
• [ ] I have added or updated unit tests where necessary.
• [ ] I have updated the documentation if required.
• [ ] I have built the package locally and run rebuilt docs using roxygen2.
• [ ] My code follows the established coding standards and I have run lintr::lint_package() to check for style issues introduced by my changes.
• [ ] I have added a news item linked to this PR.
• [ ] I have reviewed CI checks for this PR and addressed them as far as I am able.

[nikosbosse]

Going to merge this without review as changes have already been reviewed by @seabbs as part of #791 (via #806).