There is no meaningful way to get around this. Ban them in `uses:` keys? Fine, they just put it in a bash script and run that. Etc etc. If it allows running arbitrary code, this will always exist
I agree that their proposed "fix" is not a fix at all, due to the fact that you can run arbitrary shell commands that achieve the same thing.
OTOH, if in addition to restricting to a whitelist of actions you completely forbid ad hoc shell commands (i.e., `run:` blocks), now you have something that can be made secure.