fix: make a sensible encoding api #4755

Job	Run time
wasm-unknown	2m 16s
doctest	2m 48s
check no_std	58s
clippy	1m 39s
feature-checks	8m 23s
wasm-wasi	3m 19s
cfg-check	32s
test ubuntu-latest stable --no-default-features	2m 35s
docs	1m 13s
test ubuntu-latest stable	2m 25s
fmt	18s
test ubuntu-latest stable --all-features	3m 19s
test ubuntu-latest nightly --no-default-features	1m 33s
test ubuntu-latest nightly	1m 36s
test ubuntu-latest nightly --all-features	2m 16s
test ubuntu-latest 1.79 --no-default-features	1m 29s
test ubuntu-latest 1.79	1m 25s
test windows-latest stable --no-default-features	6m 51s
test windows-latest stable	5m 48s
test windows-latest stable --all-features	5m 59s
test windows-latest nightly --no-default-features	4m 32s
test windows-latest nightly	4m 37s
test windows-latest nightly --all-features	5m 37s
test windows-latest 1.79 --no-default-features	3m 14s
test windows-latest 1.79	3m 25s
	1h 18m 7s

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