Sometimes "Failed to find remote refs" means "try git-fetch --no-tags"

Down inside git-ls-remote there is a die "Failed to find remote refs".
 This struck when I tried to fetch an http repository with a missing
info/refs file.  Using "git fetch --no-tags" succeeds because it
doesn't have to call git-ls-remote at all.  Does git-ls-remote have
any way of knowing who is calling it so that it can print a
context-appropriate error message?  If not, is it worth adding some
sort of "caller context" mechanism, perhaps at the boundary between
porcelain and plumbing?  Or should the error message include, "If you
were trying to do a 'git fetch', try --no-tags; you won't get tags but
you may get a good update of the branch content"?

Cheers,