This is extremely polite while still being direct, I really like things like this.
It makes clear that there is a way they can help, with enough attitude to make clear that the other person is dealing with individuals rather than some magic free subcontractor.
Ah, I disagree. Saying "F2018 conformance will be fixed" implies that the GCC acknowledges "F2018 conformance" is a thing that needs to worked be on and not just a ruse by Bill to get free work done.
The maintainers responded well: they ignored Bill's weird framing and countered his entitlement politely.
Can't really argue with that, I found the actual responses very polite as well. I absolutely criticize nothing.
I don't think "F2018 conformance will be fixed faster if..." implies that there is any actual timeline at all, especially to the presumed target audience. Maybe that's what I'm seeing, that phrasing to me means WONTFIX unless the other party takes some kind of action.
The reason I like it is because it actually specifies what the other party can do to take action without calling them out. Calling them out is still certainly entirely fine. But if the goal is to get a purchase order issued from a negotiation perspective I think it makes sense to basically say "sure, we're willing to work on this seriously if you contribute", which then turns obviously to "I don't code" or "here's your patch", which then obviously turns to them contributing one way or another.
Patience and personal morale justifies a lot though IMO, the maintainers are of course under no obligation to care about any of that one bit, Bill could always have just patched the code and not worried about upstream. Embarrassing.
It makes clear that there is a way they can help, with enough attitude to make clear that the other person is dealing with individuals rather than some magic free subcontractor.