Thing is that the day Torvalds push a kernel that break some big name production environment is the day either the update gets ignored (effectively forking the kernel), or the big name goes looking for alternative platforms.
You see this back and forth happening over at Windows as well where continued backwards compatibility is weighed against future security.
Just look at the more restricted capabilities of anything WUP vs Win32 (never mind Win16).
Torvalds does great work. Spengler does great work. The kernel team does great work. The PaX team does great work. Torvalds is not always the easiest person to get along with. Spengler is not always the easiest person to get along with. Life is sometimes complicated. None of this takes away from anyone's achievements.