He lives under the sword. The moment he stops being right, everyone will swiftly turn against them.
What separates them is that they're almost never wrong. Not when they pull out "this is garbage" card.
This is a difficult ability to learn. You need to stay quiet most of the time, then be a complete asshole when it's important.
I really hate that aspect of our industry. But that's just hating on humanity. Apes listen to apes that shout, but only when everyone else is listening too. Otherwise you're just a dick with no influence.
The key is to hate that Linus is a bully while also respecting him when he's right.
It's super frustrating because I feel like any of us could have written that, and no one would care. Literally no one would listen. But Linus says it, so it bubbles to the top of HN and now we're counting our blessings for how lucky we are.
Try to remember this next time someone says something that sounds crazy. Your instinct should be to suppress your skepticism and think whether it has merit. It might piss you off, but is it true? That's the important bit.
And not just for design, but for everything.
(I'm sure whoever came up with the current design isn't too happy about Linus calling it garbage, but they'll just have to deal with it.)