Contribution workflow

Hello,

It was said to me that the main way to contribute is via bugzilla. So last
year, I wrote tickets 270798, 273569, 273568 and got no response since. On
github, repo freebsd-ports, I have pull-request 241 which I think will have
a similar fate as the bugzilla tickets. I do realize that the github repo
is supposed to be publish only, but if you look, some pull requests are
being accepted and it is better than being ignored.
That brings up the question:
Firstly, are requests for new ports supposed to be sent via bugzilla?
Secondly, is the wait time on bugzilla normal behaviour or am I missing
some part of the contribution process here? Thirdly, how can one become a
maintainer to help clear up the waiting line of bugs, pull-requests &c?