You can already get such an archive by clicking on the right bit of the release page. And I believe at any page reflecting a revision. It is easy to get a copy of the repository.
It isn't the case for all projects, but for some there are some pre-build steps that the majority of people who want to install and use the project don't have or even know about. The project can put up the source after those steps are done, and the downloader does the final source building and installation with ease.
As an end user looking at the release page, you can't tell the difference between the easy way (the pre-processed source that will work well for you) and the hard way (you'll need to install and invoke several tools for no real benefit).
The underlying problem is that Github make it really easy for people to end up with the hard way, and not the intended easy way. This benefits no-one. I have no problem with them making the repository files available - I just want them to stop confusing people who go to a release page.
Understood. I wasn't clear that I have no problem with being able to download a copy of the repository from as many pages/places as is reasonable, and there is no need to change that.
The specific top level complaint is about the releases page when visited by a human who would have the goal of building and installing the software release. There the "Source Code" link is misleading if the maintainer has a release file that is the expected one for building and installing the software.
It isn't the case for all projects, but for some there are some pre-build steps that the majority of people who want to install and use the project don't have or even know about. The project can put up the source after those steps are done, and the downloader does the final source building and installation with ease.
As an end user looking at the release page, you can't tell the difference between the easy way (the pre-processed source that will work well for you) and the hard way (you'll need to install and invoke several tools for no real benefit).
The underlying problem is that Github make it really easy for people to end up with the hard way, and not the intended easy way. This benefits no-one. I have no problem with them making the repository files available - I just want them to stop confusing people who go to a release page.