Really ? That's your dealbreaker ? MTP has been supported for long time on Linux… Just tried it on gnome and kde, no problem.
BTW, MTP has great advantages from an engineering PoV: you don't have to use a crappy FAT filesystem on your eMMC. You don't have to give full control over an essential piece of storage to another OS, so you can continue accessing data/apps installed on the storage.
I don't know which device you tried with Linux but Galaxy Tab 10.1 is not working on my Linux even though every library and package related to MTP are installed.
There's Android File Transfer for Mac users, which supports MTP. Not sure there's anything at all for Linux users.
This issue has turned the phone from must-have to never-want for me - it's unbelievably handy to essentially have a 32GB USB hard disk in my pocket wherever I go. Are there any actual advantages to MTP or PTP for end users?
BTW, MTP has great advantages from an engineering PoV: you don't have to use a crappy FAT filesystem on your eMMC. You don't have to give full control over an essential piece of storage to another OS, so you can continue accessing data/apps installed on the storage.