You're talking about developer communities. I was talking about governments.
I agree that developer communities can choose whatever lingua franca they want, and most choose English.
But governments have a duty of democracy and inclusivity for all citizens.
So I think language requirements aren't absurd. But I don't know where to draw the line in order to require governments to communicate to their citizens in an official language, but at the same time not block those governments from contributing to GPL'd projects. Hmmm....