Efficiency improvements for Hugo update process

A Hugo update requires many steps (example checklist), and 7 separate MRs:

1. MR to create the build image
2. MR to update the build image reference in gitlab
3. MR to update the build image reference in gitlab-runner
4. MR to update the build image reference in omnibus-gitlab
5. MR to update the build image reference in charts
6. MR to update the build image reference in operator
7. MR up update docs-gitlab-com

We have plans to add two more Docs projects (glab and get) this year, which will make this 9 MRs.

This makes updating Hugo very time-consuming and requires input from many team-members to get MRs reviewed/merged across all the different projects.

How could we make this more efficient?