> They can boycott github and turn it into a ghost town in a manner of months.
The last paragraph in the OP rhetorically mocks that idea. Boycotting GitHub would negatively impact said projects since there is no competitior as robust, which is a worse outcome.
Indeed. Though it would not take that much convincing to have those people turn gitlab into what they want and host it themselves with a container based image. Plus they could simulate the social aspect of github by using a general index of projects.
Stars can also be ported over. You could even go one step further and create star similar to reddit's "gold". A "gold" star would contribute to the development of the project.
The last paragraph in the OP rhetorically mocks that idea. Boycotting GitHub would negatively impact said projects since there is no competitior as robust, which is a worse outcome.