I don't disagree with any of that. I'm saying that normal Linux doesn't want to optimize for free as in freedom/libre, it wants to be a usable and modern kernel

I don't disagree with any of that. I'm saying that normal Linux doesn't want to optimize for free as in freedom/libre, it wants to be a usable and modern kernel. The license it uses helps it with doing that, but Linus has been clear that the project doesn't care about much more than that. It's sad but it is a tradeoff. I wish it wasn't and that most hardware and software was "libre", but that's not the case so there's a trade off to be made.