In my world
it's generally a no-go to send unsolicited personal e-mail to
maintainers and alwys use the respective channel (issue tracker, mailing
list, forum, whatever).

Interesting, For me, with the amount of really unrelated and truly unsolicited mail going around, I don't mind getting an email from people who have a genuine project related issue, especially if that person makes it clear that they sincerely believe that what they are bringing to my attention, needs attention.  I actually kind of think that is what an email address in part, is for.

I also know that not everybody is paying attention to posted issues or comments on issues, which by times, can be as bad as plain old SPAM. Also possible that there are people who don't want to or cannot for some other reason write on a specific platform's issue system. Anyway, I just see all this, including the rights mess as symptomatic of how unwell our competitive capitalist society is. Hopefully it doesn't last too many more decades. :-)

In any case, Nick has kindly responded to it here on the list, so let's
hope the situation will be resolved soon.