Linus isn't a manager, he's in charge. Persuading people to move in the same direction is a critical management skill but fundamentally not the job of someone a

Linus isn't a manager, he's in charge. Persuading people to move in the same direction is a critical management skill but fundamentally not the job of someone actually steering things, and it's entirely common for the person in that role to just bluntly do the decision loop thing and let someone else put a happy face on it. If you're driven away from having the job of transforming specific concrete direction into action for a large important organization then you should probably find a different job. Not everyone needs to put up with that, although if you have ambitions as a manager of people it will probably be career limiting. The only strange thing about the Linux kernel is how it's all done in public instead of face to face.