[blasdel]

keep in mind that Torvalds unilaterally declared that applications that run on top of Linux are exempt from GPL.

That text is just there to allay FUD, it's not a necessary part of the license in any way.

This is in effect LGPL, not GPL.

No it is not, not in any way, shape, or form. If you distribute something that dynamically links with the kernel, the GPL applies to you in full force.

To the kernel, applications running in userspace are data. They may link with libc to make syscalls, but that just means they throw interrupts that the kernel catches. Your userspace programs aren't derivative works of the kernel any more than your documents are derivative works of the last application you used to edit them.