You're acting as if a kernel can only have one aim. This is not a criticism, but I would like to deeply understand, what does Linux leadership want it to be? A

You're acting as if a kernel can only have one aim. This is not a criticism, but I would like to deeply understand, what does Linux leadership want it to be? An OS that just runs on anything for the sake of it? NetBSD falls under this, for example, but NetBSD also has many other benefits and aims than "Can run on your Burroughs P100." Linux has ~5k people a year contributing patches to the kernel; it can have many aims, because "Linux leadership" doesn't mean "Linux dictatorship."