I wonder if this shift can be attributed to influencer / social media culture. That is, these things exist to get "likes" and "engagement" and build "communities" and "brands" and whatnot. So your average person, someone who even knows a bit about open source, might think that any maintainer worth anything would want those things as well, and see it as not just worth it, but required to provide all the extra free labor required to get those likes and promote their brand.