Get a byte array no encode/decode in base64 from REST Service – It's possible? – Asp.net

I was speculating how to receive a clean byte array from a web-api (no encode/decode in base64). I still don’t know if this is possible. Possibly there are things that I am doing wrong, or that I don’t know yet. I have created a simple example to explain the issue. As you can see I’m just trying to send a text string encoded in a byte array, and decode it on the client side.

Backend, a minimal API

using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Text;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var app = builder.Build();

app.MapGet("/GetQuote", () => HttpBinaryDataTest.GetQuote());

app.Run();

class HttpBinaryDataTest
{
    public static HttpResponseMessage GetQuote()
    {
        var text = "I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.";
        var bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text);

        var response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK) {
            Content = new ByteArrayContent(bytes)
        };
        response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/octet-stream");

        return response;
    }
}

Frontend Test, a console application

using System.Text;

Console.WriteLine("Http Binary Test");
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to start...");
Console.ReadKey();

var h = new HttpTest();

var quote = await h.GetQuote();
Console.WriteLine(quote);

Console.WriteLine("Press any key to end...");
Console.ReadKey();

h.Dispose();

// -------------------------------------------------------

class HttpTest : IDisposable
{
    string apiRoot = "http://localhost:5274/"; // ApiTest
    readonly HttpClient client;

    public HttpTest()
    {
        client = new HttpClient {
            BaseAddress = new Uri(apiRoot)
        };
    }

    public async Task<string> GetQuote()
    {
        var response = await client.GetAsync($"GetQuote");

        var bytes = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync();

        var decodedText = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes);

        // Should be:
        // I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

        return decodedText;
    }

    public void Dispose() => client?.Dispose();
}

When I run the client, what I get is a JSON, without errors, but I don’t know how to get the data I expect. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? The response:

 {
"version": "1.1",
"content": {
    "headers": [{
            "key": "Content-Type",
            "value": ["application/octet-stream"]
        }
    ]
},
"statusCode": 200,
"reasonPhrase": "OK",
"headers": [],
"trailingHeaders": [],
"requestMessage": null,
"isSuccessStatusCode": true
}