> At least some contributors have certain expectations on gratitude that
> don't end with "thanks", and include a certain degree of autonomy. Like
> having the last word in a technical discussion.
Strict autonomy for the developer of one part of a software package
(GNU Emacs in this case) is incompatible, inherently, with doing a
good job of maintaining the whole package.
What we can do, in practice, is leave it to the contributor to decide
nearly all the technical decisions of per part of the package,
except for the occasional issue where we can't.