This is objectively wrong! Git has ‘request-pull’ command that generates a message to an upstream maintainer to pull changes from an online downstream clone. That request message can be sent by email or some other means. But no patches are involved. And no - Github did not invent it. It was there before Github existed. In fact, there is a rant by Torvalds as to how GitHub reimplemented PRs poorly, throwing away good features of the request-pull command.