Then there was PS2GL which was built on top of that, also not quite like the GL version on the devkit. But both shared the same fate of not being used that much.
The IOP chip was restricted but that wasn't really a big deal for most purposes, as it was generally only used for I/O.
In any case, it seems my memory was playing tricks on me.
The higher level APIs I am talking about was SPS2 and then there was Libps2dev as well.
The VU were actually available, I completely forgot about it.
You can delve into the old site, some guys did manage to mirror it, before Sony pulled the plug.
http://ps2linux.no-ip.info/playstation2-linux.com/coding-on-...
Personally I think the main reason for Sony's delusion with the community was that instead of trying to make games, many were using their PS2Linux kits to turn the PS2 into routers, cheap GPUs or cheap PCs.
The community was never as vibrant as the XNA one in terms of game coding.
As for the whole Linux support - I remember Kutaragi pushing the PS2 to become a home computer. Even its devkits (T10000s) were looking like PCs and had a "workstation" mode. PS3's "other OS" seems to be a vestige of this policy.