> but the "need to create an account" is an extremely valid drawback, and one I do not have a good answer to.
I never find this to be a big deal. The friction to create a new account is usually pretty low. Type in my email address, let Firefox generate and save a secure password, maybe do email verification, and I'm in. If I'm willing to spend possibly hours crafting a patch to contribute to some software I like, followed by some code-review back-and-forth, the few minutes spent setting up an account is nothing.
I never find this to be a big deal. The friction to create a new account is usually pretty low. Type in my email address, let Firefox generate and save a secure password, maybe do email verification, and I'm in. If I'm willing to spend possibly hours crafting a patch to contribute to some software I like, followed by some code-review back-and-forth, the few minutes spent setting up an account is nothing.