This specific scenario didn't happen. But still, Linus has been downright abusive towards contributors in the past. It might have influenced some peoples decision to stop or to never start contributing to Linux.
Is not being abusive towards technical incompetence. Its being abusive towards a person who made a mistake. You can be as forceful and as clear about technical problems without being abusive. A simple "this patch should never have been accepted, and if the approver continues to accept bad changes like this I'll need to re-evaluate their position as a maintainer" gets the same, or perhaps an even more forceful message about the technical issues across, without any personal attacks.
Technical incompetence need not be tolerated. But suggesting someone be retroactively aborted shouldn't be either.