If the users were seriously demanding the feature, then at least someone would have stepped up to code it. It's my understanding that most of the users of Arch Linux are not exactly a technically challenged bunch.
There's also the lack of any chatter on the issue for long periods of time. If this was such a serious issue that so many users wanted, then why only a handful of discussions about it over the past 6 years?
I find it a little disturbing that you've just latched on to the part of the issue that hits home for you (developers ignoring a patch) and are ignoring other stuff (e.g.):
I don't care about the lies because what I need to know is that there is a major safety issue open since 2006 and the maintainer of the software have not fixed that yet.
I understand that people have their own schedules, I do maintain OSS myself: I am fine with developer taking months or even 1 year fixing stuff. 6-7 years is not justifiable though. If you didn't have time to code something important for an important piece of software you mantain in 6 years, you have no justification towards your user: don't pretend you do.
There's also the lack of any chatter on the issue for long periods of time. If this was such a serious issue that so many users wanted, then why only a handful of discussions about it over the past 6 years?
I find it a little disturbing that you've just latched on to the part of the issue that hits home for you (developers ignoring a patch) and are ignoring other stuff (e.g.):