Linus needs his RMS and vice versa. Don't frame this as 'empty ideas' vs 'noble industry'. Both are necessary. There are many reasons, none of which need to be

Linus needs his RMS and vice versa. Don't frame this as 'empty ideas' vs 'noble industry'. Both are necessary. There are many reasons, none of which need to be justified to the public, as to why a person may turn down an opportunity. His article made a short criticism of KA missing the forest for the trees and then provided a very long and detailed analysis of ways to improve it. For free. So everyone benefits. I suspect the videos in his article were not dummies, mocks or faked, but actual working code. If you visit his website you will see a mind numbing amount of examples and demonstrations in the same vein and length as the article. The effort required to fake these would be truly enormous. Again, his reasons for not releasing code don't need to be justified to us.