I agree it's mostly pointless to argue one way or another what Linux would be in a hypothetical timeline in which Linus was less rude/brash. But it seems ironic

I agree it's mostly pointless to argue one way or another what Linux would be in a hypothetical timeline in which Linus was less rude/brash. But it seems ironic to bring up Jobs as a counter-example, because he most definitely was known to be an asshole who said and did things far more reprehensible than what Linus has been accused of. But Jobs has no shortage of first-hand witnesses who testify that his force of personality (e.g. the reality distortion field) was pivotal to Apple's success. I'm a Church of Woz worshipper myself, but it seems clear he would not have (reluctantly) agreed to quit his anonymous HP engineering job to join Apple, had Jobs not literally thrown a crying tantrum (and IIRC from one of his biographers, he did this in Woz's own home).