The developer owns a copyright to the specific work - the literal arrangement of characters in a specific order, and non literal aspects like structure or organization. Copyright is created when the work is ‘fixed’ but is not attached to a specific copy of the work. All copies thereof are either made by the owner, produced under license, or a violation of copyright. Everyone can distribute any work they have license to, intact or modified, latest or not, as long as they adhere to the terms of the license. “Ownership”of a repo, latest commits, etc. barely enter into the equation.
As always, if we don't like the direction they have taken, the solution is to fork the project.
I think it would be a mistake to set precedent based on how much you like or agree with this particular developer.