Git history visual clarity

gistfile1.md

So we've got 2 primary branches: main (prod) and develop. We use GitHub. The develop branch is protected: You need a PR to change develop. So on production release: develop merges to main. The code is now identical, but those two branches are not the same commit. (main has an "extra" merge commit.) I can't push to get them on the same commit:

git:(develop) ✗ git merge origin/main --ff-only
Updating bf8228b..f9c3e42
Fast-forward
✗ git push
Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
remote: error: GH006: Protected branch update failed for refs/heads/develop.
remote: - Changes must be made through a pull request.

And I can't create a PR because GitHub doesn't allow a PR with 0 code changes. Just curious how others handle this. Seems visually ugly (git history) that they never become the same commit.

Desired state

Visually cleaner: On production releases, main and develop are the same commit:

  gitGraph
    commit
    commit
    branch develop
    checkout develop
    commit 
    commit
    checkout main
    merge develop
    commit
    commit

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Current state

Unfortunate GitHub reality: main and develop circle each other, but are never the same commit:

hmm... Mermaid can't really visualize --ff-only? ... yes it can?

hmmm... kinda weird visualization of main on 3rd merge?

  %%{init: { 'gitGraph': { 'mainBranchOrder': 2 }}}%%
  gitGraph
    commit
    commit
    branch develop order: 3
    checkout develop
    commit
    commit
    checkout main
    merge develop
    commit
    commit
    branch hotfix order: 1
    commit
    commit
    checkout main
    merge hotfix
    checkout develop
    merge main
    checkout develop
    commit
    commit
    checkout main
    merge develop

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