Well, while we're being pedantic, publicly expressing an "interest in such functionality" deep in some HN thread is roughly as productive as asking him directly why he doesn't scratch his own itch.
This whole notion that saying "patches welcome" is insulting/dismissive/pointless is completely missing the point. Open Source mostly runs on people doing, not pontificating. It may be "unprofessional" or "rude" in other contexts, but it's a fundamental part of what makes Open Source work. I suspect you've never actually spent any considerable time working on such a project, otherwise you'd most likely have seen things from the other perspective and realized this already.
This whole notion that saying "patches welcome" is insulting/dismissive/pointless is completely missing the point. Open Source mostly runs on people doing, not pontificating. It may be "unprofessional" or "rude" in other contexts, but it's a fundamental part of what makes Open Source work. I suspect you've never actually spent any considerable time working on such a project, otherwise you'd most likely have seen things from the other perspective and realized this already.