REGR: astype(str) of object array with byte objects

[jorisvandenbossche]

On released version, we see this behaviour:

In [1]: idx = pd.Index(['あ', b'a'], dtype='object')

In [2]: idx
Out[2]: Index(['あ', b'a'], dtype='object')

In [4]: idx.astype(str)
Out[4]: Index(['あ', 'a'], dtype='object')

So where the bytes object b"a" gets converted to the string "a".

On master (since a few days), however, we now get:

In [7]: idx.astype(str)
Out[7]: Index(['あ', 'b'a''], dtype='object')

so where the bytes object gets converted to the string "b'a'"

Possibly due to #38518 cc @jbrockmendel

[simonjayhawkins]

Possibly due to #38518 cc @jbrockmendel

can confirm, first bad commit: [7043f8f] REF: use astype_nansafe in Index.astype (#38518)

[simonjayhawkins]

hit the revert button b4 becomes more difficult to revert.. #38610

[jbrockmendel]

reverting makes sense short term.

longer-term, does this affect other places where astype_nansafe is called?