I don't want the conditional execution of a pipeline to block a PR's ability to merge.

See here for GHA docs: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/writing-workflows/choosing-when-your-workflow-runs/using-conditions-to-control-job-execution

Note: A job that is skipped will report its status as "Success". It will not prevent a pull request from merging, even if it is a required check.