I realize you said this was a rant, so my response is meant to be light. In its defense, Savannah predates git and all the repo hosting web services that came after it. People had to use something before git and before the web caught up with native. Even now, I believe Savannah supports more source code revision repos than the alternatives (I know from a network affect standpoint it appears git has won for now, but not everyone has converted). It would be nice if the look and UX could be freshened up, but it is hard work keeping up with fashion.