Hello,

I am looking through the [backlog of open patch submissions](https://issues.guix.gnu.org/search?query=is%3Aopen+tag%3Apatch) to see if any are actionable on my end. One such patch is [issue 55728 which updates python-mock](https://issues.guix.gnu.org/55728). Based on the output of `guix refresh --list-dependent python-mock | wc`, this will impact more than 2000 packages. While this submission is very old, neither the master nor python-team branches have updated this package yet. In [section 22.8.2 "Managing Patches and Branches"](https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/devel/en/html_node/Managing-Patches-and-Branches.html), there is a recommendation that changes which effect more than 300 dependents are added to a different branch for testing.

These dependents presumably still work, as there are not 2000 build failures or a flood of related bug reports. So I think it would make sense to first ask the submitter for their motivation for sending the patch (for example, it might be a prerequisite for a package they want to add and they did not send it as a series for some reason). Depending on their response it might make sense to do something other than apply the update as given (for example, by providing both versions of the package so that a new package can be added without impacting existing branches). But there also might be some reason why it makes sense to apply the update everywhere (for example, if significant optimizations in the update reduces build times for all of the dependent packages).

So my main question is whether or not people agree that it makes sense to ask the submitter for more information and take no other action at this time. And as a secondary question, if it does make sense to update the package everywhere is there anything actionable on my end?

Regards,
Skyler