To be fair, we've only advertised "repositories" on our front page — not "projects" — and gists are all full-fledged git repositories. TechCrunch added the "projects".

"Project" is a pretty ambiguous term, of course; there's gists that are multi-file full-fledged database adapters, there's gists with one-line bug fixes. Both could be more influential than full-fledged "normal" projects... it depends on the circumstances. I think each have their place in programmer society.