Is there a clean way to create offset branches in gitdags?

I don't know if this counts as "cleaner" (and I also don't know the gitdags package) but anyway:

\documentclass[tikz,border=5]{standalone}
\usepackage{gitdags}
\tikzgraphsset{%
  nudge/.style={/tikz/shift={#1}},
  nudge down/.style={nudge=(270:#1)},
  nudge down/.default=1
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\gitDAG[grow right sep = 2em]{
  {[nodes=placeholder commits] "..."}  -- A -- B -- C -- 
  {[nudge down]
    D -- E;
  }
};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}