Release must be documented
It’s not a must [unless you put it into a contract], it’s a should or would be nice
Many, if not most, projects don’t follow a good, obvious, transparent, documented release or change management.
I wish for it, too, but it’s not the reality of projects. Most people don’t seem to care about it as much as I do.
I agree blind acceptance/merging is problematic. But for some projects (small scope/size/personal-FOSS, trustworthy upstream) I see it as pragmatic rather than problematic.
Have you considered creating a ticket called “Can’t ask questions without joining discord”?
Do you think it would have more answers if it were on GitHub discussions?