That's a good point, yes. The author could have sent a patch renaming the variable with commit message "oh come on" or "let's be profesional" and it would have

That's a good point, yes. The author could have sent a patch renaming the variable with commit message "oh come on" or "let's be profesional" and it would have probably worked, but instead he wanted to be a hero fighting against (probably not real) sexism. It seems R foundation has no need for people who want to fell like a hero.