It doesn't mean that the author has to do whatever you tell them to.

Right. Likewise, you're not obligated to help people pick things up or hold doors open for people. But you do it because it's a reasonable response. The maintainer had the right to respond how he did, that doesn't mean he should have, if he was interested in building rapport with the community, or improving the product. (This is sort of how companies have the right to provide poor customer service, but may prefer to yield that right even at added costs.) This is about bug reporting etiquette and the fact that being uptight about code sample procedures may be in bounds, but also counterproductive.