Github Project URL Suggestion

Why don't you guys use the GitHub URL https://github.com/codeigniter instead of the current https://github.com/codeigniter4

Is a hard coded version 4 good for the long term?

If you don't have access to that url, you should try asking GitHub support to get access.

The "codeigniter" organization was setup long ago, and not by us.
That is why the original organization was "bcit-ci".
"codeigniter4" is purposefully for version 4 and related things.
"codeigniter5" has been claimed on spec.