the title and core argument do not seem to align much. subject is git, but most discourse is around github. the role discussed is for serving packages, while the title refers to it as "database".

regardless of the semantics, git is not ideal for serving files. this has been more apparent in the ai world, where extensions such as git lfs has allowed larger file size.

but as seen elsewhere, network effects trump over any design issues. we can always introduce an "lfs" for better shallow fetching (cached? compressed?) and this would resolve a majority of the op's grievences.