I think they should be. Top to bottom hardware and software co-design. I wish they hadn't gone object code only, because I feel like that really ended up causing a lessening of cool software coming out and a too heavy focus on vendor software (back in the old days, the systems programmers at customer shops often modified the operating system and would get those mods put into the OS by IBM for next release, now the sysprogs still modify the OS, but much less likely to be codesigned with IBM if you come up with something cool, and there is less visibility into the source for the OS kernel for z/OS).

But still, the hardware/software co-design and full system suite provided (FreeBSD style) kernel + OS attached really is a great way of doing things and the more I work in Mainframe and also work on Linux, the more I wish Linux vendors took more cues from the Mainframe or FreeBSD worlds.

I suppose you could argue that Oxide Computer is attempting this as we speak. One of the reasons I am a big fan of them.