alt Hacker NewsWell, contributing to FOSS is a prestige accomplishment. It's viewed as a way in. It's now just a metric to game, and to automate that process is too easy.
Combine this with a growing sense of being "left behind" and a highly publicized collapse in software jobs coming any day now and any proof of contribution is highly prized. So why not?
They'll destroy the prestige of it by doing this, though. Unfortunately the OSS model will have to change to cut them off now, and the more people rush it the faster that response will happen.