Yes. Anybody should be able to make pull requests.
But incentivizing people to make pull requests is a different matter.
But incentivizing people to make pull requests is a different matter.
I think the problem was not as much incentivizing pull requests but incentivizing low effort pull requests and outright spam.
(Yes, of course, blatant spam doesn't help anyone and is disgusting, I'm talking about in general)
In your scenario, it would be like incentvizing "donating a vial" and hoping it will be filled with blood, but 99% of people are donating an empty vial.