have an utility function for creating the release, for GitHub packages at least?

[maelle]

Wrapping the corresponding gh call (or the usethis function).

[wlandau]

https://usethis.r-lib.org/reference/use_github_release.html looks similar, but it seems to rely on a CRAN-SUBMISSION file. So I agree, it would be nice to have an R-releases-specific version of that here.

[maelle]

though this usethis function has

In the absence of such a file, we assume that current state (SHA of HEAD, package version, NEWS) is the submitted state.

[wlandau]

Thanks, I didn't catch that part. In that case, it may be enough just to point to usethis::use_github_release().