I will say since the storms, I have seen a lot of new people in the GMRS areas of social media I follow.
This seem like an amazing time to grow and help these new people getting into the hobby.
I would say, like me, the new crowd found myGMRS and are just going through requesting all the repaters close to them no realizing they don't have do all the requests unless they are labeled "request permission".
SO, if any of our new GMRS people see this post is a repeater is listed as "Open" you are free to use that repeater without permissions. If it labled "Request permission", then please do so.
I hope the new influx of users enjoy the hobby and stick with it.