There are many extremely competent engineers who can’t deal with the idea of exposing themselves to public humiliation. That’s especially true in today’s environment where these kind of bully rants have become a spectacle for outsiders. Just google the name of the person who was the subject to one of Linus’ rants about a year ago. Despite being a very accomplished figure in the RISC-V world, top results for his name are links to Linus calling him an idiot. That’s a mark he will have for life. I would die of embarrassment.

It’s perfectly possible to critique without being a bully.

What Theo and Linus are doing wrong is scaring away a large pool of potential contributors who don’t want to take that risk.

Personally I believe being an asshole to people is doing something wrong.