The definition of malicious, according to Merriam Webster[0], is the following
>having or showing a desire to cause harm to someone : given to, marked by, or arising from malice
Was the intention here to cause someone harm? What the intention here malice? Which conversely has this definition[1]
>desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another
Was this their primary motivation? What evidence do we have that is in fact an action driven by malice? In fact, I don't see any, especially after doing roughly 20 minutes of research, I have arrived at the following:
Reading the public history surrounding the maintainer of these projects, the issue trackers of the repositories, and the maintainers own blog, you may come from a different conclusion entirely. If I was to speculate - and mind you, I am speculating, as I don't know the maintainer personally nor do I claim to understand them completely - there is a clear sense of mental strain they are feeling from the burdens here. Being burnt out, feeling taken advantage of, can lead to very real and deep feels of depression and/or other mental challenges (this I speak first hand to), for starters. I think the maintainer - again, speculating here, however evidence does seem to suggest this - is acting from a place of disillusionment, and possibly is resentful of their status in the word, relative to those benefiting from their contributions to open source software. Are they right to feel this way? Maybe, maybe not. However, is this malice? That's the question. Is this actually malicious? All evidence points to no, its not an act of malice. Its an act of someone who is disillusioned, strained, and struggling. I think the most reasonable interpretation given all the evidence is that they are trying to raise some kind of awareness - albeit in ways that I don't think is well communicated, due to the issues I previously highlighted - most likely.
I could be wrong, I'm just following the publicly available evidence and, its a lot more murky than this is an malicious act by a malicious maintainer acting in malice.
And again, this brings up the broader issue around open source maintainability, longevity, the role of consumer and maintainer, and how to build better symbiotic relationships around that, yet we aren't talking about what lead to this event, which I would argue is more important than what happened.
My ask is for nuance in this conversation, where there is seemingly little.