I agree with you on this sentiment. When I took over this plugin it has always been a part of it that has been sorely lacking. I plan to revamp the permissions and set them up so that a user can choose what permissions anybody gets in Jenkins based on their access in GitHub (think similar to the matrix-based authorization strategy).

For now, as a workaround. I highly recommend making use of the matrix-based authorization strategies. I personally use the Job DSL plugin and the project matrix-based authorization strategy in a large Jenkins installation (~600+ users with ~1300+ jobs). For now, that works for me. However, I agree that part of the GitHub authentication plugin needs some love.

I'll use this issue to track enhancing this feature.

See also https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/GitHub+OAuth+Plugin#GitHubOAuthPlugin-MatrixbasedAuthorizationstrategy

Code changed in jenkins
User: John Maguire
Path:
src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/GithubRequireOrganizationMembershipACL.java
src/main/webapp/help/auth/use-repository-permissions-help.html
src/test/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/GithubRequireOrganizationMembershipACLTest.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/github-oauth-plugin/056917638fad1c89a113fd1ab9ebb4293523953b
Log:
JENKINS-40566 - Allow collaborators to cancel/abort a build

Code changed in jenkins
User: Sam Gleske
Path:
src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/GithubRequireOrganizationMembershipACL.java
src/main/webapp/help/auth/use-repository-permissions-help.html
src/test/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/GithubRequireOrganizationMembershipACLTest.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/github-oauth-plugin/05313d07327f3efdd9831f7492a6b38e072e4db9
Log:
Merge pull request #81 from johnjmaguire/master

JENKINS-40566 Allow collaborators to cancel/abort a build

Compare: https://github.com/jenkinsci/github-oauth-plugin/compare/4aea81453f45...05313d07327f

0.27 released https://repo.jenkins-ci.org/releases/org/jenkins-ci/plugins/github-oauth/0.27/github-oauth-0.27.hpi

LGTM. Thanks!