Because in the good old days when git was still distributed, a merge often started with sending someone an email to obtain your newly-coded commits via `git pull`ing your "gpu-drivers-for-linus" branch from some URL pointing to your personal GitWeb install. In other words: it was a request to pull your code.

Similarly: Why are the Gitlab people so happy to merge? Where is my "Rebase Request", "Squash Request", or "Cherry-pick Request"?