Do keep an eye out, I'll oftentimes open requests for a day or two during breaks.
Also damnit, Loki I just figured a thing that could be helpful to implement in the art section regarding requests. If only I thought about it back then ;-;
If not already implemented [which I totally would have tested], perhaps the option to allow the OP to notify thread watchers that they have changed their thread settings.
This way, people who are otherwise unaware but have the thread watched will know if they open requests/closed requests/put requests on hold/etc.