I don’t think the Linux one is that stupid, but it might be me.
It’s not a “magic comment” because it doesn’t depend on the runtime. It specifies an interpreter to use, regardless of the language of the file.
Eg you can use #!/usr/bin/python for a Python script. I don’t find it worse than the existing alternative of making the file name magic and finding and interpreter based on that.
It's a comment ignored by the interpreter (bash, python, whatever).
The kernel just says "Hey! You can't execute a text file, you weirdo! I'll just read the very first line of the text file and if it happens to be a comment that points to another executable, I'll run that and pass it this file."
It’s not a “magic comment” because it doesn’t depend on the runtime. It specifies an interpreter to use, regardless of the language of the file.
Eg you can use #!/usr/bin/python for a Python script. I don’t find it worse than the existing alternative of making the file name magic and finding and interpreter based on that.