I would investigate if the issue is rather Git UX related. If you use One File Per Actor in your level, any changed actor translation will result in a new changed file in Git. GitHub desktop will show you a file with a hashed name. When you then commit your files it’s rather a guess work what you commit. Maybe this results in issues that people submit changes unintentionally.
That issue has been also described here: Feature request: One file per actor, include actor name in external actor file names - #22 by errata
Your .gitignore and .gitattributes looks fine.