When we use Gitlab::SQL::Pattern, this typically relates to a trigram
index. As the 'tri' indicates, we need at least three characters to be
able to use that index.
Labels don't have a trigram index, because we never allow you to search
for them globally: it's always in the context of a project or a
group. In that context, it's just as fast to search for a single
character (in general) because there is already a pretty specific index
being used.
Sean McGivern