... after thouroughly testing it in production for 11 months and verifying that they had a point. This is perfectly valid. A pull req might have been better, b

... after thouroughly testing it in production for 11 months and verifying that they had a point. This is perfectly valid. A pull req might have been better, but this starts a discussion as well, and might prompt the project owner to say "Sounds great! Submit a pull request," or alternatively, "Sounds cool! We'll provide a link to your fork on our page." Both good.