The question is whether the patches would be accepted. There are still people in charge. When they make a choice to go route A and you say: I have a great patch

The question is whether the patches would be accepted. There are still people in charge. When they make a choice to go route A and you say: I have a great patch to make route B work, they are not going to take it. Secondly, if you disagree with an architectural decision, you can't be expected to make the chosen architecture work. Especially not if your patch may be rejected anyway. The number of patches that get rejected is staggering. Practice shows that 'patches welcome' is just not true.