I give you an upvote for reasonably stating your point, and introducing some very valid points.

I agree that his brash tone, as portrayed on HN, is detrimental to the development of the Linux kernel. I would also posit to say that there would be many examples of him encouraging and helping kernel contributors, but they don't make good headlines.

I think that Greg Kroah-Hartman is actually doing a damn fine job as the stable branch maintainer, and anything Linus says should really just be taken as the passionate words of someone who doesn't want to see their creation diminished.