I don't see how that's related. There are loads of open source software projects that are maintained by only a single person precisely because they haven't both

I don't see how that's related. There are loads of open source software projects that are maintained by only a single person precisely because they haven't bothered to properly document why it exists, what came before it, what important things it is demonstrating, or what needs to be done to improve it; the archetypical content of a research paper.