I'm pretty sure people respect him despite being rude, not because of it.
What you misrepresent as being "rude", which insinuates that it has no positive effect on the outcome, is actually being direct and to the point regarding technical decisions. People whining about rudeness to try to put aside the context, meaning and results, demonstrate that they either miss the point or intentionally run away from it. The fact is that his communication style is a reflection of his leadership strategy which resulted in the world's most successfull operating system project in history.
Trying to downplay the main causes and consequences because they feel their feeling might not be pampered is a tremendous injustice to the man and his achievements.
"How did they noty die as babies, considering that they were likely too stupid to find a tit to suck on?"
If you make it your point to intentionally ignore context and cherry-pick the hell out of the man's decades-long archive of public emails... Well, I guess you can find something that twiddles your feelings.
But, again, you need to ignore the context, his work, his achievements, and everything he built, helped build, and continuously work on building.
But hey, let's focus on your feelings.