and then consider the typical project on Github which makes it intentionally hard to open up an issue, like with a template where you need answer 10 questions right down to your underpants size...
If your project is targeted at developers, you might be able to find someone you can trust to help you out, but if it's targeted at non-technical users that's like finding a unicorn.
I'm not arguing in favor of keeping people out of course, just that it's not as straightforward as "issue templates bad" vs "RTFM noob".
Traditionally if you have a high user lifetime value you can spend more money on getting more customers by increasing your marketing spend so your CAC (customer acquisition cost)/LTV (lifetime value) stays at a good level. So you can keep a good growth curve.
In this case when your ltv is negative for each issue because of low quality, or simply too many of them then you make it harder for new issues to come in, which should ideally result in fewer but higher quality reports?
I have a question mark in there because I did not spend a lot of time considering this, but I like the thought.
You need to gather some good information, You need to explain it in terms that are understandable, and you probably ought to put a little effort into making sure you weren't creating a duplicate bug.
Not that that invalidates your point. It's enough work on its own without adding extra unnecessary work.