Where exactly is this conspiracy to make the kernel worse through ulterior motives coming from? Literally every large company relies on the kernel working well today, so "corporations" or "shills" aren't rational origin stories.
I wouldn't call this a conspiracy, unless I start selling T-shirts. My hypothesis wasn't even that people are trying to make linux worse. Just that it will be.
Intel pushed a half-baked mitigation for meltdown that Linus was real mean about recently. Linus made a remark that stuck out to me.. Something about calling into question the motives of Intel that would even push it. (Conspiracy time) it smelled to me like management pushing for a PR clot before their fix was ready.
Working well for your interests doesn't necessarily mean working well for everyone's. Linus's motives are transparent and for the Kernel.
Linux ran by a commission representing large companies would definitely behave differently...
