A single hosted plugin repository is a huge multiplier towards ecosystem growth, but WordPress always had the option of distributing the load by asking others to set up mirrors, and offering a selection of mirrors. Y'know, redundancy. They've never done so.

There's also no option in the WordPress core to easily point towards a different repository URL.

Maybe this whole debacle would lead to slightly more decentralisation of WordPress, which might be a good thing for the long-term health of the project and community.