OK, I am not a developer, so I guess I often ask the kind of questions developers think are stupid and irrelevant, because they don't appear to be asking them.

This is such a case, I think, so please forgive my ignorance. I don't have an axe to grind. I am just trying to learn.

Wouldn't the wholesale adoption of a plugin framework like Herbert resolve this kind of issue?

And OK, Herbert may be a little OTT for most people's needs, but what about adopting WordPress Plugin Boilerplate as a minimum?

It seems to me there is way to make things more transparent and less arbitrary, if the repository was a little more prescriptive about imposing a minimum standard for submission.

Not only could that standard be open sourced, so that everyone who has a stake has input, but it would also make the job gatekeeper much easier.

i.e. "So solly. No ticky, no laundly".