Use different Ansible collection versions in one Molecule scenario

Question

I have an Ansible collection to install some software. Each software version is attached to a separate collection version. To test an upgrade I need to apply an old collection version first and then run the new version. To achieve that, I slightly changed the converge/test sequence in molecule.yml:

---
driver:
  name: docker
provisioner:
  name: ansible
  env:
    ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH: ${MOLECULE_EPHEMERAL_DIRECTORY}/collections
dependency:
  name: galaxy
  options:
    requirements-file: ${MOLECULE_SCENARIO_DIRECTORY}/collections.yml
scenario:
  converge_sequence:
    - create
    - prepare    # installs previous collection and software version
    - dependency # installs new collection version
    - converge   # upgrades software
  test_sequence:
    - lint
    - destroy
    - syntax
    - create
    - prepare
    - dependency
    - converge
    - idempotence
    - verify
    - destroy

So dependency step installs the new version of collection before upgrade activities in converge, and prepare playbook contains tasks to install an old collection version and previous software version:

---
- name: Prepare
  hosts: all
  become: true
  become_method: sudo
  gather_facts: true
  tasks:
    - name: Install previous collection version
      command: >-
        ansible-galaxy collection install -r ../collections-upgrade.yml -p {{ lookup('env', 'MOLECULE_EPHEMERAL_DIRECTORY') }}/collections
      run_once: true
      delegate_to: localhost
      changed_when: false

    - name: Include installation role
      include_role:
        name: namespace.collection.role

But it works only when converge runs twice or more, so collection is found in ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH. But why it's not so for the first run? The error is

TASK [Include installation role] *******************************************
ERROR! the role 'namespace.collection.role' was not found in /workspaces/software/roles/software_upgrade/molecule/_shared/playbooks/roles:/workspaces/software/.cache/molecule/software_upgrade/scenario/roles:/workspaces/software/roles:/home/vscode/.ansible/roles:/usr/share/ansible/roles:/etc/ansible/roles:/workspaces/software/roles/software_upgrade:/workspaces/software/roles/software_upgrade/molecule/_shared/playbooks

The error appears to be in '/workspaces/software/roles/software_upgrade/molecule/_shared/playbooks/prepare.yml': line 35, column 15, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.

The offending line appears to be:

      include_role:
        name: namespace.collection.role
              ^ here

Is there a way to avoid that or use another approach? I tried to use an environment variable for dependency.options.requirements-file and execute dependency step twice when it's necessary to install different collection versions, but had also no success with that.