It takes time, effort and interest to do so. Additionally, one must learn the politics, code-style, idiosyncrasies, etc before submission will be successful. A

It takes time, effort and interest to do so. Additionally, one must learn the politics, code-style, idiosyncrasies, etc before submission will be successful. And of course, the architecture of the project itself. Open Source / FOSS creates the opportunity for anyone to offer code; it does not mean it will so simply be accepted, or should be. And it does not mean you can, or should. But if you wish to, a path always exist (if they just plain don't want it, and you really want to add it... fork!)