Jimbo - Unfortunately, I have been unable to replicate this error so far.
If I use a profile name 'abc def' it works perfectly. I then created a profile named 'h264 vaapi' and it also worked perfectly. I watched for the incoming Kodi connection on my TVH log and it was clearly using the profile name that I provided.
I was able to force a failure when I entered an extra space at the end of the profile name in Kodi, however, if both Kodi and TVH had a space at the end, the profile worked.
I tested with pvr.hts version 20.7.2.1, so maybe there has been some regression. I will try testing with the latest development version of Kodi and pvr.hts when I have a chance.
Update: I have also tested with pvr.hts v21.2.6.1 without error.