Linus did make git literally for himself, and by extension the kernel community. If you look at his quote about the name "Git," I think it portrays accurately the wry attitude of mock-antagonism linus feels around git:

"I'm an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First Linux, now git." - https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Git_(software...

It's not negative at all. It is a credit to Linus as a creator. Linus made a great tool and the command line UI is enough for him. Gitbox just makes his creation accessible to others and everybody wins.

It's only negative if you want to read it that way.