Would you say that C is "here to stay" in Linux? I would say so. I think you understood what was meant.
Its exactly what Linus said.
That is actually quite well put together. May be The language that introduce absolute control also induces zealotry and produce zealots.
However that doesn't happen with Ada. So that cant be the full explanation.
For that matter the C of Linux 10 years ago was not there to stay either, it has changed and certain features and practices are deprecated and dropped and others adopted. It's not the same C.