Backport PR #39065 on branch 1.2.x (Regression in replace raising ValueError for bytes object)
Backport PR #39065: Regression in replace raising ValueError for bytes object
Failure is caused by xlrd version fixed in #39077 and #39078  > Failure is caused by xlrd version fixed in #39077 and #39078

yes these are totally fine. just waiting for the backport to pass first (the fix)