I'm hoping this is at least partly a troll, because it misses an incredibly important fact - Linux belongs to Linus, he owns the trademark, he is the dictator, and he can literally do anything he wants with the project including shutting it down, walking away, and leaving the world to fork it and carry on.
You may well consider it important and fundamental, but that gives you exactly as much right to decide how to run it as any other piece of private property (which is zero, if I'm not being clear). The fact that he chooses to give away the output has no bearing on anything.
I no longer develop any software, I have lost my interest in tech and these bunch of comments are probably the last ones of mine on HN. Also, I do not need Linux or Unix like I needed before, so I won't even install Linux if I get a new laptop. Why would I, you would wonder, bother who runs Linux. The only reason is I unwillingly empathise with people, those who have words to say him but remain silent because they have to make a living and they make it by getting paid to contribute to Linux, and those who have created software that made FOSS possible and have no obligation to bear Linus' filthy language. You can think that I am a troll, and I can think that Linux belongs to Linus as much as the USA belongs to Washington.
You may well consider it important and fundamental, but that gives you exactly as much right to decide how to run it as any other piece of private property (which is zero, if I'm not being clear). The fact that he chooses to give away the output has no bearing on anything.