That's how git started.

But there were already quite a handful of other distributed version control systems around by the time git showed up.

So if Linus hadn't written git, perhaps we would be using darcs these days. And then we'd be debating whether people are using darcs the way it was intended. Or bazaar or monotone or mercurial etc.

I don't think what the original authors of any one tool intended matters very much, when there were multiple implementations of the idea around.