I read that sentence as "where everyone can contribute a little [to the overall ecosystem]". Absolutely maintainers don't need to accept your contribution of a patch, and that's what forking is for - both are part of the overall banner of open source licensing.

Who said anything about “owing”? If you write a book and I send you a note correcting something in it, you’re right - you don’t owe me shit, but it would be pretty nice to get a response. I find these views extremely cynical, a little niceness works both ways.

Since you agree that the maintainers don't owe us shit, we are on the same page. I guess I took issue with this -

> OSS is supposed to be a collaborative environment

OSS is supposed to be what the OSS authors and maintainers want it to be for their project while satisfying the terms and conditions of the license they have chosen for their project. It does not have to be a collaborative environment. Yes, it will be great if it is. Many authors just don't have the time to do collaboration after they have made the initial few releases. But that does not stop others from collaborating on it or forking it and improving it.

I am sorry if this sounds cynical. That's not my intention at all. I genuinely like that the open source licenses gives a lot of rights to the user while also including disclaimers that the author is not responsible for troubles you face with the software. Far from being cynical, I find it very beautiful actually. It allows the authors to be creative and publish software when they can without worrying too much about support and maintenance. Of course it would be nice if the authors also support and maintain the software and many authors do but it is good to know that it is not necessary and the licenses say so too.