Personal observations however: This used to be slightly different in late 1990s FLOSS community. At least with the advent of github, forking something huge or starting a new project from scratch on one's own (because why not) became much more attractive and common than collaboration and improvement of existing code. That's why now in virtually every field of software we have a plethora of half-baked stuff that just all too often lacks resources for maintenance, bugfixing, support.
Discussion
The main problem (not to me but in general) is: improvement of existing code requires the ability to read. "The Chuckcha be not a reader, the Chuckcha be a writer" vibe is now stronger than ever.
Yeah, I'm actually backward, in that I've read way more code than I've written, and in more languages.
I sit down to write something myself and get writer's block. 😅
Aargh! How to define a method in language XYZ again?
I try to mentally translate everything to pseudocode.
Yes. Definitely so. Plus: Communication. Joining a project led by someone else means you don't have a say immediately, you have to earn trust and merits before that. And this is work, this requires engagement and commitment. Seems a lot of this world is too short-lived for that. But maybe I'm too bleak Herr.