Volunteer time often means that if something isn't immediately actionable, or actionable with minimum effort, it gets ignored, and then it gets forgotten. It's not malicious, it's just the reality of things.

If you had obtained the handbook from version control, and added this as a new file using the markup language in use, made sure it built without warnings or errors, proofread the HTML and PDF output, and then sent that in as a patch, it would have been mergeable with no effort other than a brief review.

If the people reviewing it also had to completely rewrite it in the correct markup language, and they are not domain experts in the material it is covering, then you've basically given them a task which is hugely demanding upon their time.

I've had several experiences of this. Sometimes it pays to pull all the stops out and spoonfeed the recipients with something which is as perfect as it can be, and they have no reason not to merge it. It takes a lot more time on the part of the submitter, but that's time you've saved the reviewer, by giving them a finished article. This can greatly improve the chances of success, by removing obstacles which would hinder it.