There is a problem with the Yocto recipe for Python 3 in warrior. It
is missing ntpath in the list of core modules listed in
python3-manifest.json.

Since warrior is EOL, I was hoping to fix this by patching the
python3-manifest.json file but it doesn't work. I think the reason is
that the manifest file is read by an anonymous function in the recipe,
which I understand is executed during recipe parsing (which I assume
happens before the patches are applied).

I know the patch is being applied correctly because the content of
python3-manifest.json file is correct when I inspect it in the
build/tmp/work... directory.

My question is whether there is any method in bitbake to apply patches
early enough to fix this issue?