[rimantas]

  > why tf did Git win at this?

I was giving a presentation few years ago when SVN vas still a king and hg and git were only emerging (I included bazaar too in that presentation). Even then I recommended to pick up git. I don't remeber giving any really solid reasons, it was more like a hunche, but now when you asked. I'd say git just does make sense at some deeper level. Whe foundation is very sound you can fix bad UX later, but when foundation is no so good, you will suffer endlessly.