I think that Linus is at a point where he plays with it, because he knows that peoples know his game/character and that he will easily publicly say harsh words

I think that Linus is at a point where he plays with it, because he knows that peoples know his game/character and that he will easily publicly say harsh words to someone. Thus by 'democratizing' it, nobody got ostracized in the developer community by having being called a 'moron' by Linus, because we all know (Linus included) this can happen to anyone.