I totally agree! A couple days ago I happened to post a similar request on the ModWiggler forum:

From https://modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4237599#p4237599

One gripe I have about module entries that are "Approved by manufacturer" locked is that many manufacturers are not very good at keeping on top of updating their modules on ModularGrid! And the method of getting the manufacturers to update changes or correct mistakes by sending a message is sort of tedious/cumbersome and no guarantee that the change will take place or the request even read, since ModularGrid is often a low priority for them or worse yet they've gone out of business or passed on. 😔

I think a better method might be to set up a "Pending Change" status so that end users can use the normal tools to make changes to a locked "Approved by manufacturer" module but the changes wouldn't take place until the manufacturer takes action on the pending request (approves, rejects, or doesn't respond for a certain period of time, at least a week but no more than a month?) While a request is pending no more changes/pending requests can be made on that module. This way it would be more streamlined for both users and manufacturers and modules that were locked by manufacturers that don't care or are MIA can still be updated in a reasonable amount of time. (which will also reduce the need to end users to create duplicate module entries that can be edited)