People that don't want to discern what they're downloading would then be less likely to download changes they don't need. That's good.

I'd say a loss in trust in bitcoin due to issues will be a bigger factor, even if those issues were isolated.

Core has multiple major versions per year, that's worse than many js frameworks.

That's not a metric I'd judge a project's coding practices by. I think something like the number of bugs and their severity would be better.

the actual prescription is to prevent a politburo from impersonating Bitcoin

I doubt that would happen. They might fool the gullible, but few else, imo. Certainly not big miners or businesses who would have a lot to lose if bitcoin failed.