User entitlement and harassment are major problems in FOSS, and I don't endorse it, even for Signal. But, coming from Signal in particular, this seems pretty weak. It almost feels exploitative of the real problem - harassment in FOSS - as an excuse for Signal to make self-serving design decisions at the user's expense.
Remember that Signal touts itself as a secure communications tool, with endorsements from the likes of Edward Snowden and Bruce Schiener. We should hold them accountable for delivering on that promise, or we risk the real human lives who choose to rely on a flawed tool. Signal has made several design decisions which reduce its ability to address the problem of secure communications, which are conveniently self-serving. When their arguments for these decisions have been debunked, and yet the self-serving designs persist, this is a bad look for Signal. They have chosen to weigh their self-interests against the user's security, in a tool designed for securing vulnerable users.
Signal is unlike most FOSS projects. They have access to resources which put them among the most privelged projects in terms of ability to execute on changes. The Signal Foundation has a war chest of hundreds of millions of dollars.[0] With a hundred million dollars, a full-time dev team, and 10+ years of development, I think we can expect them to have addressed many of the complaints ten times over, especially when similar systems have been built by volunteer teams in a fraction of the time. Complaints, again, which address ways in which Signal's privacy guarantees are lacking, and which Signal conveneintly benefits from leaving unsolved.
I don't think anyone should be mean or rude to FOSS maintainers, including the Signal contributors. Entitlement and harassment are huge problems in FOSS. However, I do think we should hold Signal accountable for delivering on its privacy promise, being good stewards of vulnerable people, and not compromising on this to chase after their own self-interest.
[0] https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/82450...