fix: make a sensible encoding api #4771

Job	Run time
check no_std	59s
cfg-check	32s
clippy	1m 23s
docs	1m 3s
doctest	2m 49s
feature-checks	8m 22s
fmt	13s
wasm-unknown	2m 15s
test ubuntu-latest stable --no-default-features	2m 20s
wasm-wasi	3m 16s
test ubuntu-latest stable	2m 31s
test ubuntu-latest stable --all-features	2m 55s
test ubuntu-latest nightly --no-default-features	1m 45s
test ubuntu-latest nightly	1m 31s
test ubuntu-latest nightly --all-features	2m 19s
test ubuntu-latest 1.79 --no-default-features	1m 35s
test ubuntu-latest 1.79	1m 27s
test windows-latest stable --no-default-features	7m 0s
test windows-latest stable	4m 55s
test windows-latest stable --all-features	5m 39s
test windows-latest nightly --no-default-features	3m 55s
test windows-latest nightly	3m 35s
test windows-latest nightly --all-features	4m 53s
test windows-latest 1.79 --no-default-features	3m 16s
test windows-latest 1.79	3m 43s
	1h 14m 11s

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