It has always been this way. Right now, I want to update a few Guix packages, but I have no clue on how to do the same. Where’s the issues supposed to be created? What about creating new commit? Who is the maintainer I’m supposed to be speaking with?
Updating Guix packages is super simple (as described in the manual). Check out the sources, create a patch, email said patch and wait.
For other (GNU) projects this may be a lot harder