> GitHub seems to encourage a "push model" in which you are notified when a new event occurs in your project(s), but I don't want to work with that model. Instead, I prefer it to work as a "pull model", so I only get updates when I specifically look for them.

I agree with the sentiment, but want to point out that email can be used to turn push into pull, by auto-filtering the respective email notifications into a separate dedicated email folder, which you can choose to only look at when you want.