Why license the kernel GPL if it doesn't matter any because every vendor would be totally willing to put it up in any case (or defer to the official repo becaus

Why license the kernel GPL if it doesn't matter any because every vendor would be totally willing to put it up in any case (or defer to the official repo because they made no changes anyway)? Such an approach smells of virtue signalling, and IMNSHO we have way too much of that already.