Since upstream has removed the dependency on tepl[1] and this has been backported to the Debian package[2], I think this issue can be closed.
[1]: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gedit/-/commit/fa587e033c97fac65dacdb3c9520635beca68fbc [2]: https://salsa.debian.org/gnome-team/gedit/-/commit/f70d7c12f4df479c580a1110ab86081623e5b119
