Removing and adding branch protection REST API issue

Summary

We cannot programmatically create a GitLab project via REST API, remove initial branch protection and then re-add branch protection with correct settings.

Steps to reproduce

Create a project using GitLab REST API (post to https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects)
- This results in a 200
Remove main branch protection using GitLab REST API (delete to https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/${projectId}/protected_branches/main)
- This initially results in a 500 but is actually successful
- Retries then occur and a subsequent call fails with a 404 because the removal succeeded originally
If we then attempt to re-add branch protection using GitLab REST API (post https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/${projectId}/protected_branches) the result is a 500 error but again the call has actually succeeded

Example Project

What is the current bug behavior?

Calls to the remove main branch protection using GitLab REST API (delete to https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/${projectId}/protected_branches/main) result in a 500 (but are actually successful)
Calls to re-add branch protection using GitLab REST API (post https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/${projectId}/protected_branches) result in a 500 error but again the call has actually succeeded

What is the expected correct behavior?

Both calls should result in a 200

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

Initial call

{
  "message": "Request failed with status code 500",
  "name": "AxiosError",
  "config": {
    "transitional": {
      "silentJSONParsing": true,
      "forcedJSONParsing": true,
      "clarifyTimeoutError": false
    },
    "transformRequest": [
      null
    ],
    "transformResponse": [
      null
    ],
    "timeout": 30000,
    "xsrfCookieName": "XSRF-TOKEN",
    "xsrfHeaderName": "X-XSRF-TOKEN",
    "maxContentLength": -1,
    "maxBodyLength": -1,
    "env": {},
    "headers": {
      "Accept": "application/json",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "PRIVATE-TOKEN": "REMOVED-AS-PRIVATE",
      "User-Agent": "axios/0.27.2"
    },
    "method": "delete",
    "url": "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/46695135/protected_branches/main",
    "axios-retry": {
      "retryCount": 0,
      "lastRequestTime": 1686219840672
    }
  },
  "code": "ERR_BAD_RESPONSE",
  "status": 500
}

Subsequent call

{
  "message": "Request failed with status code 404",
  "name": "AxiosError",
  "config": {
    "transitional": {
      "silentJSONParsing": true,
      "forcedJSONParsing": true,
      "clarifyTimeoutError": false
    },
    "transformRequest": [
      null
    ],
    "transformResponse": [
      null
    ],
    "timeout": 30000,
    "xsrfCookieName": "XSRF-TOKEN",
    "xsrfHeaderName": "X-XSRF-TOKEN",
    "maxContentLength": -1,
    "maxBodyLength": -1,
    "env": {},
    "headers": {
      "Accept": "application/json",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "PRIVATE-TOKEN": "REMOVED-AS-PRIVATE",
      "User-Agent": "axios/0.27.2"
    },
    "method": "delete",
    "url": "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/46695083/protected_branches/main",
    "axios-retry": {
      "retryCount": 3,
      "lastRequestTime": 1686219701368
    }
  },
  "code": "ERR_BAD_REQUEST",
  "status": 404
}

Output of checks

This bug happens on GitLab.com /label reproduced on GitLab.com

Results of GitLab environment info

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Results of GitLab application Check

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