Unpopular question: if this is the case, why put it on github?

There are countless web frontends[^1] to expose a git tree on the internet, without the community/social aspect of github.

[^1]: https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Interfaces,_frontends,...

jabbany

(1) Running your own web service costs money (hosting fees) and time (setup, patching security issues). Often quite significant amounts of both, making it unattractive for small FOSS projects. Github provides a free and managed service.

(2) The maintainer _wants_ the community/social aspects like Issues and Discussions. They just don't want code contributions. Of course, one can run their own bug tracker and forum... but... see (1).

(3) GitHub has been branding itself as more and more of a package manager too (and in many areas it has become the de-facto one). Placing things on Github v.s. self hosting can also be seen as an SEO/advertising move for an FOSS project.

pmlnr

On that list, there are projects like https://github.com/Hypercubed/git2html . It makes a set of static files, which could be uploaded to any static hosting provider, including github pages.