Or maybe that tech in general has a toxic culture problem and Linus definitely contributed to it by making it ok to be an asshole as long as you are skilled.

I often see people complain that 'soft' topics are not worth being included in conferences.

Being tough and being an asshole are two very separate things. The best engineers I have had the pleasure to work with were both technically skilled and great mentors/teammates.

Last time I have checked, software engineering is almost exclusively teamwork, it is time we start treating it as such.