FESCo policy is that package maintainers need to deal with reported bugs in a timely manner. Setting up an auto-response to say “we’re ignoring this bug” conflicts with that, so I think either the policy or the auto-response needs to be changed so things are in alignment. If this results in changing of policy, then the non-responsive maintainer policy should probably be updated as well to state that ignoring bugs isn’t grounds for being considered non-responsive.
In my packages, if I get a Fedora bug report for something I know is an upstream issue, I’ll link it in the Fedora bug and close it with the UPSTREAM resolution. If I can’t find an existing upstream issue, I’ll encourage the reporter to file one or file it myself. I consider that a normal part of bug triage, and think most packagers (not just in Fedora but in many distros) feel the same way. Logically if you ignore that triage work for a long period of time, the number of unresolved bugs may feel insurmountable, which seems to be the case here. The maintainer responsibilities policy specifically suggests asking for help on the devel and test lists, teaching others how to triage bugs, and adding co-maintainers. These seem like great first steps to try before a policy change is considered. In the meantime, the bug auto-responses are giving a very negative impression about the quality of Fedora.