Make sure all pipelines would go to pending once

What does this MR do?

Make sure all pipelines would go to pending once

Are there points in the code the reviewer needs to double check?

I think this is an important assumption, but that might just be me.

Also, how should we test this? The original bug report was that started_at was never set, which is a by-product of this issue. Should we test that?

Does this MR meet the acceptance criteria?

• Changelog entry added, if necessary
• Tests added for this feature/bug
• Review
  • Has been reviewed by Backend

What are the relevant issue numbers?

Closes #39884 (closed)