You've drilled into the focus of the article:
1. I'm too lazy to overcome the inertia of not knowing what to do next
2. I'm too scared of rejection or looking dumb
The resulting question is: is there an onus on the community to provide additional tools to help the lazy/scared people like me push through these barriers?
My opinion is "yes, within limits", but I would also understand if someone said "no".
Contributing to open-source projects is, in my experience, often more trouble than it's worth--precisely because all too often the people already involved have forgotten (or never had the social capability to know and understand) that #1 is a falsehood and #2 is an eminently reasonable reaction for any remotely normal human being. I still contribute to some projects, but only projects that I or close personal friends maintain. It allows me to tell them to unscrew their heads when they act like the grandparent poster.
(Note that in some cases it's a very beneficial form of crazy, and is not inherently bad, until it starts becoming an issue with other people.)