The emails were unsollicited and sent to a large number of recipients. It's fits the dictionary definition of spam, despite not containing a direct advertisement.
Cambridge merely defines spam as: "unwanted email, usually advertisements", which this also fits perfectly, as nobody who stars a Github repo sees that as confirmation of wanting join a mailing list.
Furthermore, if this were marketing (it's an invitation into the community more than anything else) this email may actually violate the CAN-SPAM act. IANAL but I don't think it applies here as the email doesn't even offer anything, it's just begging for feedback.
There's really no 2 ways about it. Targetted or not doesn't change that fact.
I don't think they approve.
Think of it this way, if they actually approved, would this be how they would say it?
Maybe. Anyone who thought it was a great idea and generally liked marketing would necessarily be so different from me that it only makes sense that I would not be good at thinking like them enough to accurately interpret what they wrote. So I suppose it's possible that this is perfectly direct and sincere, but it just does not seem reasonable.
EDIT: From further comments below, I guess I got my answer. They actually don't see this as a problem. Oh well so much for giving people the benefit of the doubt.
We literally came out and apologize.
https://github.com/OpenBB-finance/OpenBBTerminal/issues/1625 - this provides my initial train of thought. But the "Welcome to our newsletter" was never the email intended to be sent.
In any case, it was a shitty idea regardless. We apologized for it, but there's nothing we can do now to make up for it.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spam
"unsolicited usually commercial messages (such as emails, text messages, or Internet postings) sent to a large number of recipients or posted in a large number of places"
Doesn't matter if it's targeted or not.