I think if you put code out there in such a fashion that use of it depends on your version of it (whether that be the community culture at large, or just specifically your way of going about it), then you have more of an obligation not to just take it down without warning people and giving them time to transition to either a forked package, or their own local copy, or whatever. It certainly harms the individual developer's reputation who does such a thing, even if one indeed has the ultimate right to do so.

Of course, if this pushes people away from modern dependency hell, then it may just be a good thing.