> I would have told people to pound sand, personally, given the absolute vitriol sent his way.

Sounds like a great way to get even more vitriol, and continue to get it for years afterward. Every time you released a new version, there it’d resurface again. Sure, you could block some people on GitLab, but then you’d see it on social media or what have you.

Or you could just move it out to a plugin quickly (which is what happened, the beta for this version was out in a couple of days) and curtail the backlash.

Being angry at the people angry about you is not a practical solution if your goal is piece of mind.