The email-based workflow could be convenient for some, but speaking for myself, I'd mainly prefer to interact via the web UI. The ability to send updates to patches submitted from the web UI seems to be missing. If I made a mistake or was asked to change something, I had to completely re-submit the patch as a separate email. I couldn't find a way to communicate on mailing lists without using an external email client. Basic things, like needing to hand-wrap my emails at 70-something characters, and remember to remove quoted text from the bottom of emails, is an unfortunate barrier to entry for new contributors. All of these things could be abstracted away via the web UI for those who don't want to use email.