Agreed. Frankly I'm amazed that the linux kernel has been such a hit with leadership like that. Torvald seems brilliant, but he also seems like a royal asshole. Why anybody would want to work with him is confusing to me.
He is very defensive and dismissive of his own mistakes. Linus suggested the removal of a memory barrier and subsequently broke locking on kernels for most of 2014. The fix did not get into most distributions until 2016, since it was kept quiet and not communicated. The result is that deadlocks seemingly occur at random, causing complaints from users of my libraries. It has wasted many hours of my time, and surely more for others. However the more experience you have, typically the more forgiving you are to mistakes as we all make them. Linus lacks that and acts childish, making it very difficult to respect someone who disrespects everyone else.
In the multicultural environment and on project where quality is critical, this is what is required. You need to make sure that your point is getting across. Even after 4 years in the UK I often misunderstood what "good" can mean in different contexts.
You will not hear many stories about Jobs and Gates throwing fucks because it was either verbal or protected by contract.
An ass would be mean with no reason behind it. Linus always has a reason and often a good one.
Low tolerance for dumb and hacks is actually a good thing.