inifinitely regressing "ls" drive under "Volumes"

The results of the command diskutil list show that the the Catalina system as be renamed ls and should be named "Macintosh HD" because the "Data" drive is named "Macintosh HD - Data".

The terminal command:

diskutil rename disk1s5 "Macintosh HD"

will repair this.

I think you just accidentally renamed the system volume to "ls", probably by typing it while not realizing the system volume's name was selected. I was able to reproduce your results by just renaming mine in the Finder. To change it back, go to the Finder's computer view (Choose Go menu > Computer, or press Command-Shift-C), select the disk "ls"'s name, change it to Macintosh HD, and press Return.

(Note: it's normal for there to be a symbolic link from /Volumes/systemvolumename to /.)

No, typing git config ls in a Terminal is not going to cause the effect you have there.

I would unmount the ls folder, or just reboot the Mac to get back to normal.