Speaking from personal experience, if I'm using a dependency within our application that I see fit to improve upon, I usually take the initiative to add that improvement --whether or not upper management approves of such behavior. I think this manifesto is great in that it encourages developers to contribute, but it's almost implied, that many developers who implement these tools, find requirements that would fit not only their needs but others as well.

I recently implemented a very popular templating engine for our new project. Saw an improvement that could be made to the repo and did a quick PR on a fix. Done. I understand not all issues are that fast to fix, but it's default behavior on my part to fix the actual dependency (or find an improvement) while I'm working. In other words, I find that such actions are morally in-sync with the item at hand. I hope to see others share a common thought-process.

Make open-source part of your routine and see how far it takes you.