Resolve "Branch name omitted due to bad UTF-8 conversion by Gitaly ref handler"

What does this MR do?

Fix a bug where charlock_holmes was used needlessly to encode strings.

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

No

Why was this MR needed?

Users were not able to see certain branches on their repositories.

Does this MR meet the acceptance criteria?

• Changelog entry added, if necessary
• Documentation created/updated
• API support added
• Tests added for this feature/bug
• Review
  • Has been reviewed by UX
  • Has been reviewed by Frontend
  • Has been reviewed by Backend
  • Has been reviewed by Database
• Conform by the merge request performance guides
• Conform by the style guides
• Squashed related commits together
• Internationalization required/considered

What are the relevant issue numbers?

Closes #41677 (moved)