I don’t often interact with fan-bases for FOSS projects, instead as a developer I mostly interact with maintainers and contributors. Sometimes the maintainers are incredibly abrasive and belittling to issue contributors for seemingly no reason. When I observe this, it makes me think twice about opening a new issue under that project. In fact, at this moment I’m considering building my own alternative to a FOSS project for this exact reason!
Edit: I know this might seem like an extreme response, but I’m also looking for a good excuse for a side-project. Depending on the project it might be worth it to brace yourself against the bristles to try and reach common ground. It could be that the maintainer(s) don’t even know that they’re coming off a certain way. But YMMV.
Sure you can do these things in parking lots, but I expect most people would prefer a more pleasant and dignified space to perform recreational activities in if they were just as common and convenient to find as a parking lot.