I'm probably just being impatient. I'll do the local build thing with pacman for now, but my curiosity is pushing me to consider the orphan request option. I'll give it a couple more weeks though.
On the couple of AUR packages I maintain neglect I have been approached via email to add people as co-maintainers. I don't always have the time to keep the packages up to date so I was happy to let someone else help out.
Might be something worth looking into rather than an orphan request.