> having a high signal-to-noise ratio for (open source) projects is a desirable goal?

It’s not obviously true. A higher number of attempts, a larger talent pool, typically doesn’t change the average much (or it might even make the average go down), but tends to produce higher peak outcomes.

We see this everywhere (science, startups, sports, chess, etc).

If you want the best spreadsheet, game, or whatever app you want, you’re only interested in the few highest peaks.

So you do actually get better signal to noise with a larger wasteland of discarded attempts. The higher peaks make it easier to filter out the noise.

The goal you’re intrinsically motivated by seems different than this. That seems to be the whole disagreement.