I can sympathize it feels sour that nothing has happened on that front for so long.
My concern is 7.8 right now. We at Roxen want it to be released RSN, and keeping xenofarm and the cvs repo running for it is important right after the release. I agree with the other Martin here that 7.9 is a whole other matter, and personally I wouldn't mind to not have a 7.9 repo at all until the migration is done.
Making a 7.8 the traditional way still requires an "mv 7.7 7.8" in the cvs repo, with whatever effects that has in the exports. At least this time we'd know the exact moment when it occurs.