alt Hacker NewsClosed reports are not lost, they are still searchable/linkable, they are just not in the list of work to do.
This is entirely up to the maintainer, who puts in the work and gives up their time/money to do so. If you want to be in charge on a given repo, put in the work and become a real contributor, if not accept the rules the maintainers choose.
You know what I mean. If the issue is closed, it looks like it's been solved. A new issue may be created that duplicates it, etc.
Obviously it's up to the maintainer. I'm saying what the maintainer should do, not what they can do.