Honestly, aside from issues with the process it's also just embarrassing. IMO, that's what is causing a lot of the issues that are being surfaced these days in oss. No one likes to be told they're ignorant. Add in a smarmy attitude and poor social skills and only the most confident or skilled people will contribute; which isn't a bad thing to be honest.

We've come a long way from the RTFM days but learning something as complicated as programming tends to make people sensitive about what they do and don't know.

It's a delicate balance. On one hand the project and the community benefits from a lot of ideas. On the other hand, a strong ego with poor understanding can not only destroy a project, they can cost a lot of people a lot of time, money, and heartache so some sort of barrier to entry that turns some people away isn't a bad thing.

At the end of the day, it'll all work itself out as long as we keep the projects open and free. Popular projects attract talent which in turn improve those projects.