The problem is that if the government is able to tell open source developers "YOU MUST INSERT THIS CODE OR ELSE!!!" then what's next?

What's next is that code gets a build flag that's turned off in the makefile, and maintainers have to explicitly turn it on for that code to compile in. Distros maintain patches that add this sort of thing all the time, even if upstream refuses to do so.

And Debian is saying that, as a non-profit, all volunteer org? This bullshit doesn't apply to them. They are building a legal basis for the makefile solution I'm describing above, and its default-off state in their repositories.

All of your catastrophising can be addressed this way. We need devs like you who can help make sure this solution is implemented exactly as described.

Debian repos are great - we can even blacklist official repos and replace them with bare, sketchy IP addresses if we like, and share binaries through them.

You cannot stop the signal. Quit thinking like a voter trapped in a Fascist hellscape, and start thinking like a hacker that the state cannot outmaneuver.