Python cryptography, Rust, and Gentoo

>_This_ is "real" open-source: zero boundary between downloading/using

What you describe sounds more like "collaboration" than "open-source": a project can achieve open-source status with so little as having a OSI license, even if its sole author rejects all your PRs because he thinks the project only makes sense for him.

>Configuring and building C/C++ code at large is a nightmare and Linux distributions have been performing an amazing and critical job there. However to solve this they had to add layer(s) of indirection between software authors and users

It is thanks to this indirection - or rather: integration -, that gives projects visiblity in the first place. Things could have turned out quite differently: If librsvg could not be integrated again after the language switch, the distro would either sport no svg support, no browser or no users (or any combination).