Going on...

> Some settings need directories to exits, but Mercurial doesn't
> support to create empty ones[2].

Neither does git.

> Hence someone in charge has to create the following ones within
> /etc/skel/.newsbeuter
>
>   - saved_articles
>   - podcasts -- though optional, since that setting is commented out

No. Noone does.
If I tell a program: "Save foo to bar/baz/", then the program should
better create that directory for me (it may ask me if I think it's
okay, if whether I screwed up).

About the patches:
I'm as always sceptic about diverting from default colors.
I don't understand why the default entries in the killfile would make
sense.

As with the other pings: What's the status here?

Regards, Frank