> I’ve recently realized people misguidedly think GitHub repositories are public space.

I feel it is quite similar to public space. It is open and accessible to everybody. There is a certain etiquette in public space that you should adhere to though. I think that is where the real issue lies. A few people have unrealistic expectations of open source maintainers. I have seen very rude behavior towards maintainers, people get this weird sense of entitlement sometimes.