How is this different from having a pull request that will go unmerged for potentially years? You still need to maintain your fork etc.

So it’s worth it for you to have other people fix your problem for you (for free!), but not for you to do it yourself?

No, he's saying a person who is thinking about results for the Clojure community wouldn't take things that way. Not everyone wishes to fork the community. Politicians step down from issues just because the timing is wrong and would be factious, not because the issue is wrong.

Also the person in question is also a well-received volunteer, which is why this is getting traction to begin with, which is why Rich Hickey would even take the time to tell someone that they aren't worth the time of the very response they're reading.

"which is why Rich Hickey would even take the time to tell someone that they aren't worth the time of the very response they're reading"

I think you are misrepresenting what Rich wrote. He said you are not "entitled" to a response. That is not an evaluation of someone's worth, but a statement about what they are owed, or not owed.

A PR on GitHub cannot be made without a fork to begin with.

Then what?