Reputational loss isn't a good argument either, because what the comment I replied to said is that repositories in control of people in e.g. Russia are dangerous. That implies that a Russian or Chinese maintainer of popular open source software is not safe, whereas someone employed by an American company is.

However, maintainers have a reputational loss risk, just like someone working at a company does, no?

And, of course, GitHub could just replace the file you're served when you download a file from it, and then blame a hacker, a rogue employee, or deny it happened. That is just as well technically possible as any other entity being forced, by their government, to do something, no?

And, of course, if a govt forces you, your reputation is not the thing you're worried about.

I understand your argument, but that seems like it's a different argument from the one I was disagreeing with.