chore: disable sample tests for packages/* (#7996)

Co-authored-by: Shivanee <46910562+shivanee-p@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: pearigee

ci/run_conditional_tests.sh

@@ -123,6 +123,16 @@ for subdir in ${subdirs[@]}; do
             continue
         fi
 
+        # Sample tests for packages are broken/flaky and blocking PRs.
+        # See https://github.com/googleapis/google-cloud-node/issues/7976#issuecomment-4210458096.
+        #
+        # Per https://github.com/googleapis/google-cloud-node/issues/7921, 
+        # we are likely to permanently remove these tests in the near future.
+        if [[ "${subdir}" == "packages" && "${TEST_TYPE}" == "samples" ]]; then
+            echo "Skipping ${TEST_TYPE} test for packages: ${d}"
+            continue
+        fi
+
         # Our CI uses Git Bash on Windows to execute this script, which returns "msys" for OSTYPE.
         if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "msys" ]]; then
             if [[ "${windows_exempt_tests}" =~ "${d}" ]]; then