[omginternets]

The best course of action in such cases is to vote with your feet.

[numbsafari]

The question is: to where?

Is there a single IDE with plugins that has a security model in place that would prevent plugins from being taken over by nefarious asshats?

I love vim and emacs... but what's to keep them from being affected by the same thing? Who has time to read all the source code of every plugin/dependency that they use?

It's all about trust and what Kite is doing is completely destroying the network of trust in each of the communities they choose to infect.

[wishinghand]

I think the person you're replying to meant not using Kite.

[numbsafari]

What keeps Kite from taking over another package?

[omginternets]

A failing business model.

Moreover, a valid solution doesn't have to solve every problem. Abandoning Kite is already a good start.