This is par for the course when it comes to IRC, from my experience, abusing people who don't know the facts make people feel big, or something. There are maybe 4 people who hack on E and related projects full time, and about 6 more who do stuff now and again. We respond to bug reports and offers of help, and to any discussion involving nudity, goats or pants. There is zero elitism on behalf of the developers, we are really genuinely busy trying to cut an awful lot of code. There are a lot of people sitting on IRC in an awful lot of channels, waiting to look good by making someone else look bad.
Traditions can be pretty screwy.
I was walking past a fireworks display today, and paused for a moment to watch a crowd of children and adults dancing and cheering as a man-sized dummy was burned at the stake. It chilled me a little. Then I realised I'd been doing the same thing for 20-odd years without a second thought. Of course it could be just me.