I see Linus's rant as just pragmatic realpolitik. He's just one guy and he's wielding his influence in an effective way. He wouldn't be able to have nearly as much of an impact if he played by this idea that he should operate in a "professional" manner using only formal language and press releases.
given, "a very temperamental person with an inflated view of their own talent or importance."
Linus is certainly temperamental, but you'd have a hard time convincing anyone he's less that a world-class developer, and critical to the linux community.
His creation is used to run half of the world's smartphones and probably 90+ percent of the world's servers.
His other creation (git) is used to develop maybe half of the world's software projects.
Having this in mind, I can't really imagine how can he have an "inflated view of their own talent or importance". I would say he is even quite modest...
