the nature of protest is to be uncomfortable

It sure doesn't make Sam Altman uncomfortable. It just sends the message that open source contributors are at our service and they better behave exactly the way we want or they get the paddle. We will continue not helping them, but we will also actively attack them if they displease us.

Surely that will not encourage grey beards to finally retire in peace, and discourage new maintainers from stepping up.

If things were acceptably moving at a “snail’s pace” before AI, what has changed?

As i said, what has changed is that AI can now find security issues and all major projects are hit by a flurry of legitimate security flaws. These affect all deployed instances of rsync, so basically most of the world's tech infrastructure. Leaving those gaping holes open is much more detrimental to the common good than fixing them. And that goes even if the fixes are not perfect and break marginal existing use cases.

you are pro AI. On the FuckAI board. Is this like a masochist thing? Like, what are you doing here?

I'm here cause i don't mind being disagreed with, in fact i need to be disagreed with if i don't want to fall into a fact-starved self-selected cognitive bubble. I'm also active on LinkedIn punching libertarian hustlers in the dick when they need it. You gotta make sure some asshole you disagree with isn't accidentally making a great point you have failed to identify.

I'm not against AI but i'm also not "pro AI", any more than i am pro mouse or pro keyboard. But i am definitely against bullying our few remaining open source contributors.