Linus has been a great steward of the Kernel. I have never seen any instance where he has trashed on someone for any other reason than Linux. Sometimes he's cringingly brutal, sometimes he offends people. Regardless, he's been immaculately consistent in motive during the time I've been paying attention. That two decades of casual observation has elevated him to the status of philosopher king of the Kingdom of Linux in my mind.
When Linus publicly shames a person or company, he's emitting antibodies to the cybernetic organism that is "linux".
Some folks abuse politeness to press ulterior, self serving motives. It's a lot easier for viruses like that to thrive in scenarios where there's no social cost for rolling the dice.
For a contrived example, imagine there's a person that gets paid every time he convinces a project to change to a specific color of blue. Is this easier to accomplish in project with very strict codes of conduct, or with an asshole BFDL and a hierarchy?
Virus: "I've done research (<link>) that suggests that #006699 provides a superior user experience than what's currently being used. This is a PR to affect that change."
Maintainer: "Uhh, I don't think so."
Virus: "But why not? Here's another whitepaper that shows that it's literally the best UX change you could make. #006699 is inclusive and egalitarian and your current colors are racist."
The virus can press their intent as long as their persistence holds out. Any transparent, clinical mitigation to this will be gamed. However, if the BFDL is an asshole, the Virus thinks twice about social brute-forcing. If you're publicly berated when you cross the BFDL's threshold, you lose social standing. The mere threat of it hamstrings privately pressing your objective at those in the middle of the pyramid!
In addition, when done with _some_ discretion, your lieutenants will learn the implicit contour of your policies and priorities. This provides MUCH greater defense against subterfuge and unity of action than explicit Codes of Conduct.
Over the long haul though it doesn't really matter. Philosopher Kings are rare and they die. It does exasperate me to see how slow we are to develop a consciousness for that category of social attack.
When we finally do, it'll be a subtle compromise between authority and egalitarianism. It'll usher in a golden age with a seemingly endless frontier of optimism. Then, in less than a generation people will lose the plot, take it too far and we'll rot from the other direction.
TLDR; I wish Linus the best.